Author Topic: moisture content in honey  (Read 1394 times)

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Offline rober

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moisture content in honey
« on: September 20, 2021, 02:21:02 pm »
my uncapping station is a laundry sink with a heavy stainless steel rack on top & a bucket with a strainer under the drain. after uncapping an extractor load i put the cappings into a bucket. i overturn those buckets onto the rack & let it drain overnight. coming out of the extractor all my honey has been in the 17-almost 18% range. the honey from the uncappings is right at 22%. the bucket the uncappings are in has a strainer on it but for all practical purposes it is wide open. can honey pick up that much moisture being open to the air for 14-16 hours? i tried running a fan over the top of the bucket overnight & it went up to 23%. is there any way to reduce the moisture? my alternative is to  refrigerate it & use it myself because i can't sell it or feed it to the bees. i have 2 partial buckets full, around 4 gallons.

Offline Wandering Man

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Re: moisture content in honey
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2021, 03:16:57 pm »
I think honey does absorb moisture from the air.

We had heavy rains this Spring turning our bee yard into a swamp.  When we harvested, our swamp honey had 23% moisture.  We harvested only a few frames at a time this year, so there was only one bucket involved.  We placed the bucket in a small washroom with a small dehumidifier (purchased from Lowes or Home Depot hardware) running full blast.  We were able to dry out the honey in about a week.  The drying took less time when we poured some of the honey into jars, giving more exposed surface area.  We kept netting over everything to keep stuff from falling in.

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Offline rober

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Re: moisture content in honey
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2021, 04:57:11 pm »
i have a large pot that i fill with water & put 3 gallon buckets of crystalized honey in. i set the hot plate to medium & it warms the honey to 90*.  i loosen the lid so it doesn't build pressure. when i open these buckets afterwards there is always some condensation on the lid. i put the open bucket of 22% honey on this set up at noon with a fan blowing over it. i just checked it & it's down to 21% already. looks like this might work.

Offline rober

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Re: moisture content in honey
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2021, 07:37:59 pm »
6 hours in & it's at 19%. i'll let it go overnight. i now suspect that honey with high moisture content could just been the honey on the surface. when i'm thru i'll dump it into another bucket & check it again.

Offline rober

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Re: moisture content in honey
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2021, 07:50:05 am »
happy to report that after 18 hours it's at 17%.

Offline RAST

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Re: moisture content in honey
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2021, 08:39:21 am »
I was gonna say to take a sample from down deeper in the bucket. Absorbing moisture is just like removing it. Its gonna do the surface first.

Offline rober

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Re: moisture content in honey
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2021, 05:58:28 pm »
after pouring it into another bucket it was a fuzz under 17%. i'm calling it a win.