moisture in honey

[rober]

my refractometer arrived. depending on which batch I'm getting readings from 19-21 mostly 19 plus/minus 1/2 a point. I have some honey that I put in buckets & put bucket strainers on top to keep out debris, & ran a fan directly over the buckets. this is in an air conditioned basement. the readings went down 1/2 a point overnight. I'm thinking that if I can get the surface honey down to 17 that should put the average of the bucket around 18. it varies with the source but everything I've read puts the ideal reading at 18-18.5 with 19 being borderline. if you were sure that they had only been working clover ( not realistic ) a reading of 24 would be fine.

[Perry]

" if you were sure that they had only been working clover ( not realistic ) a reading of 24 would be fine."

 
Not sure about that part, why would moisture in honey of any kind be OK?

[Riverrat]

Just out of curiosity. Did you calibrate the refractometer with calibration fluid? if not you may be getting a false high reading.  Im unsure about getting the surface down to below the mark will keep the other part from fermenting.  there is oxygen bubbles trapped in the honey from the extraction process

[brooksbeefarm]

I do like rober ( mine is in 5 gal. buckets) if it checks 19 to 21 it will take 4 to 6 days to get it down to 18 or below. I try to get mine down to 17 or 17.5 before i bottle it, but our club president says 18.5 is the limit? I also have a heat box that will hold 2 five gal. buckets that i can set at 100 F and leave it 12 hrs. to 24 hrs. with the bucket lids off that will being the moisture count down and makes it easier to bottle. Everyone i've talk to in our club say there moisture count is high. Jack

[Bakersdozen]

rober and Jack, I am not too far away from you.  My backyard honey tested at 17.  My honey from around Clinton Lake, in Kansas, was closer to 19.  To bring buckets down, I have put them in room with a dehumidifier. 

[rober]

I've heard that production is down & the moisture content is up around here this year. my moisture count went down another 1/2 point since yesterday.

[CpnObvious]

Forgive my ignorance here, but don't the bees only cap it when it's ready?  Is moisture content being overthought?  I suppose I understand the concern if you're extracting frames that aren't fully capped, but if it was capped, why is there a concern?

[iddee]

cpn, I thought so, too, but check out this thread. It looks like they sometimes guess wrong.

http://www.worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php/topic,4565.msg60530.html#msg60530

[Perry]

I put wet supers back on my hives after my first round of pulling honey, it has been at least a month since they were put back on. I am doing my second round of pulling now, and many of the frames are not capped but are testing out fine on my refractometer. I am guessing that they started filling them and then the flow stopped (it's been hot and dry here). I guess that with nothing else really coming in they dehydrated the nectar down but do not want to bother capping it, waiting for the goldenrod to give up some nectar or maybe even aster if it blooms soon. Sort of a reverse problem to what I usually see.

[rober]

CPN-when our flow was on we were having record rainfall. even capped the honey is running wetter than usual.