Author Topic: honey question (Read 9195 times)

tedh · « **on:** June 05, 2016, 03:46:13 pm »

Josh and I extracted 3 supers yesterday. We have the honey in 2 five gallon buckets in front of a south facing window to warm and hopefully allow "stuff" to rise to the top. We did filter through screens but the really small particals and mostly bubbly foam(?) is still rising to the top. How long should we let it sit like this before bottling? We think we have 7.5 to 8 gallons! We both are very excited! I'm going to try to post a couple of pics later but that doesn't always work out for me. We'll see. Thanks, Ted

CBT · « **Reply #1 on:** June 05, 2016, 03:56:56 pm »

The foam will rise in a day so your jars will not show foam. A 600 micron strainer will get out everything you want out and leave the pollen grains in. Then your honey is strained to get the wax ect out but unfiltered. Good for advertising pure, raw, unfiltered honey.

And if they ask why it's cloudy. It's because yours is pure.

iddee · « **Reply #2 on:** June 05, 2016, 04:52:23 pm »

A paint strainer bag from the hardware store is all I ever used. The bubbles on top was my guarantee of raw untreated, straight from the hive. Customers loved it.

tedh · « **Reply #3 on:** June 05, 2016, 05:21:12 pm »

Should I just bottle it now and leave the little bubbles as proof?

CBT · « **Reply #4 on:** June 05, 2016, 05:27:50 pm »

Some might I don't. Try a bottle of both and put them side by side and see which is more pleasing to the eye.

iddee · « **Reply #5 on:** June 05, 2016, 06:34:17 pm »

All beeks do differently. Combine ideas and come out with your own way.
Rustic or elite, or in between.

PS. The bubbles spoon off easily after a week, so you can always change your mind and clean them up later.

Bakersdozen · « **Reply #6 on:** June 05, 2016, 07:58:33 pm »

I try to always use buckets with gates at the bottom. If I have to, I pour honey from one bucket into a bucket with a gate. The foam etc. stays on top while the good stuff comes out the gate. The foam is the last stuff and I feed that back to the bees.

Perry · « **Reply #7 on:** June 05, 2016, 09:18:22 pm »

"All beeks do differently"

Uhhh, beg your pardon?
Say what?

Lburou · « **Reply #8 on:** June 05, 2016, 09:35:02 pm »

Quote from: tedh on June 05, 2016, 05:21:12 pm

Should I just bottle it now and leave the little bubbles as proof?

As long as you strain the wings and legs, you will probably be all right. But, I do what Bakersdozen does.

tedh · « **Reply #9 on:** June 05, 2016, 10:21:59 pm »

Thanks, everyone, for the responces! The buckets the honey is in have gates. I'll let it sit a couple days and then bottleit up! Ted

apisbees · « **Reply #10 on:** June 05, 2016, 10:25:56 pm »

Strain to remove bees, wings, legs, specks of populous and wood chips scraped off the frames plus any grass seeds that has bowen and gotten stuck to the wax honey and populous on the frames. Skim the foam of the top before attempting to pore in to jars or from pail to pail otherwise the foam, and wax, will streak into the new container.

tedh · « **Reply #11 on:** June 05, 2016, 10:30:34 pm »

Okay, I'll let it sit a couple days, skim the top, then bottle it up! Thanks, Ted

Lburou · « **Reply #12 on:** June 05, 2016, 10:54:07 pm »

Apis is right, the foam can be a challenge. I have used a length of saran wrap to remove the foam. Just lay it on the surface and lift it, and the foam, off. Works pretty well.

riverbee · « **Reply #13 on:** June 05, 2016, 11:33:08 pm »

congrats ted!

the foam........

"We did filter through screens but the really small particals and mostly bubbly foam(?) is still rising to the top. How long should we let it sit like this before bottling?"

after 24 hours, take a tablespoon or two or three........

, and quickly run the tablespoon across the foam and skim it off with the bottom of the tablespoon. take a spatula, scoop this off into a bowl. repeat until you can get most of the foam off. let sit overnight, do it again, do it until the the majority of the foam is removed. if honey is cloudy it is because of this foam. the more foam you get off (and to some degree filtering) the clearer your honey will be. some folks don't care, but that is the trick to a clear jar of honey, getting the foam out. i disagree with cbt, cloudy honey is because this foam is not removed. yes it is pure, but it's cloudy because of the foam, (air bubbles, etc......)

this is how i do it........i extract once a year, in the fall. all my supers go into 5 gallon pails. the pails are kept in a garage and are allowed to freeze. if i need to use one of those pails right after extraction, i do as i said above to remove the foam. if need be, i will heat the pail, just enough to strain/filter one more time and i skim off the foam, let sit overnight, do it again the next day. (i will filter through a bucket with a honey gate and pop the lid to strain the foam off). very clear honey.

when the buckets are frozen.......easy. pop the lid, and scoop off the foam from the top. place the bucket heater on. when the honey warms up to filter/pour into a bottling bucket i scoop off more foam i missed the first time around. once in the bottling bucket, let set overnight, pop the lid, scoop any remaining foam off the top (usually very little).

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #14 on:** June 06, 2016, 12:05:01 am »

Hey, saran wrap... good idea, will have to try that!!
And, yeah, I let it sit a couple days and bottle.. Whats the moisture content?

tedh · « **Reply #15 on:** June 06, 2016, 01:17:11 am »

Hmm. Maybe I'll try, let sit a couple days, use saran wrap (I like that Lburou!), let sit day or so, skim with spoon (thanks riverbee), THEN bottle it up. Can you tell I'm wanting to get to the "bottle it up" stage?

Hey Lazy! No idea of the moisture content. Haven't got a.. a.. doohickie.

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #16 on:** June 06, 2016, 01:35:16 am »

Call Tim and go borrow his! Quick! Before he moves to Wisconsin!

Lburou · « **Reply #17 on:** June 06, 2016, 09:56:08 am »

Quote from: LazyBkpr on June 06, 2016, 01:35:16 am

Call Tim and go borrow his! Quick! Before he moves to Wisconsin!

A new couple in our bee Club had all their honey crop ferment after bottling...Invest in a refractometer! They don't come to meetings any more...

Amazon sells them. Here is one for cheap. Here is another.

Just be sure to buy a sugar/honey refractometer NOT one for making beer!

tedh · « **Reply #18 on:** June 06, 2016, 11:30:59 am »

I have a refractometer I've "tried" to use for making maple syrup. I say "tried" because it seemed pretty sensitive to the temp. of the refract and the temp of the sample, they both had to be 68*F. Hard to do when you're running around on a cold windy day. I'll probably order the refractometer you listed last Lburou, but again the temp seems to be important. Also concerned about the "how to" of the calibration. I just read how to calibrate with sugar water, but that seems pretty precise also. Not sure my scales are that accurate. There was also a method of calibrating a refractometer using extra virgin olive oil. How does everyone else calibrate their refracts? I think I can get the temps close to 68* by leaving the refract and sample in the living room over night but should I actually use a thermometer and try to control the ambient temp more exactly? If so, how? My fear is that if the calibration isn't right the reading won't be correct and I'll basically be where I am now, guessing. The devil, they say, is in the details. Maybe I'm over thinking this and need to relax a bit? Thanks Everyone, Ted

apisbees · « **Reply #19 on:** June 06, 2016, 12:16:56 pm »

Mine has calibration fluid that came with it. have never had to adjust the calibration. It also has a temp correction scale on the side and with checking multiple entries with in a short period of time some that were brought in the previous day others just before judging the most I have to adjust the reading has been 0.5 The moisture in honey should be below 17.8% so from my experience if you are getting a reading less then 17.3% moisture I would not worry about the temperature.