Author Topic: Very hard lesson! Advice please (Read 12903 times)

J-grow · « **on:** July 31, 2016, 07:47:30 am »

I have 60 pints off honey bottled that smells like rotting fruit. It tastes good but I am convinced that somehow some of the frames must have been fermented and they have tainted most of what I extracted.

There were two deep frames that were 2/3's uncapped but passed the shake test so I extracted them but they must have been fermenting in the hive?

After reading I did not see any foaming or crystallization or anything alarming but I will forever also do the sniff test on anything uncapped to try and avoid this!

My questions are ......... How often does this happen?

How do commercial keeps avoid this?

Do I just pour all of this out?

Thanks

Perry · « **Reply #1 on:** July 31, 2016, 11:46:06 am »

The only way to ensure proper moisture content in honey is with a refractometer. You can pick them up for around $100.

brooksbeefarm · « **Reply #2 on:** July 31, 2016, 12:19:32 pm »

If it is fermented don't feed it to the bees, it will cause dysentery. Like my buddy perry said refractometer. Jack

J-grow · « **Reply #3 on:** July 31, 2016, 12:39:34 pm »

im confused ........... Can it be fermented in the hive before I even take it from the bees?

Do you sample each frame with the meter?

If I take 9 frames that are ripened and one that has to high of a moisture content I could still average out to an acceptable overall moisture content when combined correct?

Thanks for helping me understand this because I am confused on weather to even give them the extracted frames back or scrape them clean or what?

brooksbeefarm · « **Reply #4 on:** July 31, 2016, 01:00:11 pm »

I've never had honey ferment in the hive if the colony was at home. No i don't test each frame of honey that i take off, when i extract a 5 gal. bucket full i test it to see if i need to cure it to lower the moisture count. I would not of taken two 3/4 of uncapped frames to extract, i've had capped honey in wet years test 20% and the highest i will bottle is 18 %, but prefer 16% to 17.5%. If it doesn't taste fermented then you may have something else going on? Fermented honey will taste fermented. Jack

Lburou · « **Reply #5 on:** July 31, 2016, 01:00:34 pm »

J, I'm confused by your report that the honey tastes okay but smells bad. Fermentation has a different odor than rotting fruit I would think.

Several in our Bee Club are using inexpensive hydrometers from Amazon like this. I use this refractometer.

We have a plant that produces an odor of smelly socks in the hive as the nectar is cured. I wonder if you don't have a plant in your area with similar odor while the bees cure the nectar...? Our broom weed leaves a taste in the honey in addition to the smell emanating from the hive.

J-grow · « **Reply #6 on:** July 31, 2016, 01:35:29 pm »

I am wondering the same thing. I have 6 jars open in the air conditioning ( just experimenting trying not to panick ) and they are smelling more " normal " .........

Is there any type of gas or anything that " airs out " of honey after extraction that could be fooling me? I bottled it all immediately after extracting and when I open those jars I get that smell ........ But as I said it tastes fine.

I will buy a meter ( FYI it was ordered and supposed to be in last Thursday just for this extraction and they informed me they were out of stock ) but as another FYI I did the shake test on those two frames and nothing came out so even if they were not totally ripe they were not " wet " either?....

Lburou · « **Reply #7 on:** July 31, 2016, 01:58:26 pm »

Fermenting honey will be full of small bubbles.

The only time I've seen it (one frame) in a hive, the bees took care of it with no ill effects.

iddee · « **Reply #8 on:** July 31, 2016, 02:40:52 pm »

Not fermentation, J. Let it set for 24 to 72 hours and smell it again.Honey does change a bit after extracting. I don't know the details, but several times I wanted to throw it out while extracting, just to find it's OK after settling.

J-grow · « **Reply #9 on:** July 31, 2016, 02:43:52 pm »

Thanks Lburou for the link to the meter your using ......... I went to Amazon before I saw your recommendation and was overwhelmed by the choices!

Sooooo I might just have stinky honey that scared me and or possibly stinky unripe honey that I should test and then take further action if needed BUT ........ it is unlikely that I had fermented honey in the hive that contaminated the whole batch of extracted honey from all 4 hives?

Sound like the most logical conclusion?

Perry · « **Reply #10 on:** July 31, 2016, 02:50:22 pm »

Last year I was uncapping a box and as I was doing so the smell of barnyard cowcrap was overwhelming. It was dark and nasty. I was so concerned I only ran a half load and kept it separate from my other honey. I jarred it and took it down the road to someone in the know and was told it was buckwheat honey, a prized variety.
I was so put off by the smell I sold it to a baker, but only after he had sampled it.

J-grow · « **Reply #11 on:** July 31, 2016, 06:41:01 pm »

It seems to be kinda calming down or maybe smoothing out ......... When I open the jars and let them sit lid off for a while the smell is getting more and more normal.

Next time I extract I think I will let it sit in the bucket for a while and breath. I think sitting in the bucket in the air conditioning will not be harmful.

Perry ........... Your story made me glad my honey only smelled like rotting fruit! : )

apisbees · « **Reply #12 on:** July 31, 2016, 06:45:04 pm »

Buck wheat honey Keep it separate and label it and sell at a premium there are people that loves it and will pay more for it. it also adds variety to your honey display at the farm market.

LazyBkpr · « **Reply #13 on:** July 31, 2016, 06:51:28 pm »

Goldenrod here makes honey smell funny too.
An easy test.. put honey in a canning jar, put lid on and wait a few days, then press the dimple in the lid down. If the honey is fermenting it will be difficult to press the dimple down, and when you crack the lid it will HISS from released pressure.. if it IS fermenting it will eventually blow the seal or bust the jar so don't leave it that way.

tecumseh · « **Reply #14 on:** July 31, 2016, 08:21:53 pm »

a snip..
Next time I extract I think I will let it sit in the bucket for a while and breath.

we can get some unpleasant smelling honey here on rare occasions. I have a couple of extra bucket lids whereby I cut slits in the top and allow the honey to breath for a short time and quite often this eliminates the problem.

across the board there are some pretty odd honey if you have the time to taste a lot of different honeys. one of the oddest here is 'snow on the prairie' which goes down very smoothly but then has a very definite after 'pop' of black pepper. airing out this kind of honey does no good what so ever.

J-grow · « **Reply #15 on:** August 02, 2016, 05:15:40 pm »

Well this is the 101 section and so as a newbie I think future newbie's may benefit from this follow up.

I took the lids off of all the jars and let the honey breathe? Cure? Mellow? Or some other word I can't think of and i now have normal delicious honey!

So thanks very much to all of you for " talking me off the ledge "! ........ I almost through it all out and what a waist that would have been had I done so!!!

Perry · « **Reply #16 on:** August 02, 2016, 08:33:22 pm »

I kept a half pound of that buckwheat honey in a jar and every now and then I crack the lid and take a sniff and you know what.....
it still smells like cowcrap!

iddee · « **Reply #17 on:** August 02, 2016, 08:40:59 pm »

Send a sample of it to Jack and ask him if it tastes like it, too.

Jen · « **Reply #18 on:** August 02, 2016, 09:06:58 pm »

"I kept a half pound of that buckwheat honey in a jar and every now and then I crack the lid and take a sniff and you know what.....
it still smells like cowcrap!"

"Send a sample of it to Jack and ask him if it tastes like it, too."

brooksbeefarm · « **Reply #19 on:** August 02, 2016, 09:44:29 pm »

Cow manure won't hurt you, if so i'd been dead years ago. :yes:You get use to the smell, like when i go to the city the smell of carbon monoxide fumes, the smell of fast food, tobacco smoke, perfume that some women have on when you walk by them, ect. When i drive back to the country and smell cow manure i'm home.

Except when the wind is from the S W and my neighbor 1/2 mile away is cleaning out his Hog houses you can't smell the cow manure

. So if the honey smells like cow manure, but taste like honey? all you will hear me say is pass the biscuits please (or corn bread).

Jack