An Idea For Dealing With High Moisture Content In Honey

[Ben Framed]

Nigel,
In your described situation, are you speaking of uncapped or capped frames with 23 percent moisture content?

Phillip

[NigelP]

Mainly uncapped Ben.

[Michael Bush]

>The bees cap honey to keep the honey from absorbing moisture. Therefore it also will not allow the honey to dry out if it is capped.
Putting the supers in a dehumidified room with a fan is to dry the un capped honey.

Carl Killion's data on the topic would prove otherwise.  He would dry out comb honey while it was still in the comb.

[JurassicApiary]

I actually use a nearly identical setup to this original post.  I have a proofing cabinet from a bakery and load honey with too much moisture onto baking sheets just like the video and instead of a dehydrator unit, I use the cabinet's internal heating system which has a circulating air system to dehydrate the moisture.  I set the temp to 100 to keep it just below the level that would breakdown the enzymes.  The bakery pans create a huge surface area and I stir them every hour or so to change up the honey that is exposed at the surface.  It has worked very well for me and usually only takes a day to dehydrate most honey's to below 18%

[JurassicApiary]

Thanks, Phillip.

Here's a photo for reference of my cabinet described in my post above.

[Ben Framed]

Thanks Jurassic, good post 'as always'!

Phillip

[Ben Framed]

Nigel,
In your described situation, are you speaking of uncapped or capped frames with 23 percent moisture content?

Phillip

Mainly uncapped Ben.

Thanks Nigel I have heard of it fermenting even when capped if the moisture level is too high. But as you explained, conditions such as temperatures as well as types of yeast content, plays a role. Jtcmedic reported on such an experience of capped honey fermenting here at Beemaster a couple of years ago on the Topic: "Capped high moisture honey"

Well yesterday I pulled a deep off one of my hives that the caps were bubbling but for my area and the moisture was capped pretty well. After extracting it I used my  Refractometer  And it was at 20% have never seen capped honey with so much moisture, so we have been making some Jalape?o fermented honey with it, also making some honey Fermented cranberries. Will see how it played out.

[Bill Murray]

The room is 18' by 15' and I stack the supers crossways,not hang them, running a fan and TOSOT 70 Pint Dehumidifier for Spaces up to 4500 sq. ft. It keeps the humidity down in the room to 30. I usually leave the uncapped honey in there max 2 days due to hive beetles. The only problem ive found is because I just spot check, is some can get really dry. Also found it dosnt work t
so special on capped honey. Maybe it would if it could stay longer, but not a good idea, due to beatles. The dripping idea after extraction just dosnt appeal to me. CABBAGE PALMETTO, not to be confused with SAW PALMETTO, also is wet, wet with large amounts of natural yeast, ferments easily in the 18.5 percent range.

[Ben Framed]

Thank you Bill for your valuable input.

Phillip

[BurleyBee]

>The bees cap honey to keep the honey from absorbing moisture. Therefore it also will not allow the honey to dry out if it is capped.
Putting the supers in a dehumidified room with a fan is to dry the un capped honey

I test the capped and uncapped when drying honey and have noticed that even the capped honey moisture decreases in the process.

[Bill Murray]

Burley how long you leave it in the drying room?

[BurleyBee]

No more than 3 days.  It depends on the starting moisture content. 

[Bill Murray]

what do you normally get out of the capped?

[BurleyBee]

Everything depends on conditions around you.  I?ve harvested capped honey in the spring that?s as low as 14, but my summer flow (mainly tallow), has a reputation of having a high moisture content.  I personally believe it has a lot to do with the high humidity here in Mississippi.  Last year I harvested and humidity was pretty high.  MC was 20-22 even in capped honey.  This year moisture content in capped was around 17.5-18 (humidity day of harvest 35 and 100 degrees).  It dropped to 15-16.5 in 2 days.

I like the drying room while still in comb.  It also allows me not to worry if it?s capped.  I?m getting more comfortable with my flows and know they just won?t cap at a certain point.

[Bill Murray]

I understand there are a lot of factors up to going in the drying room, my humidity level in the drying room stays a constant 30 and my capped honey dosnt drop even a fraction of what my uncapped does. Do you think it might be a relational issue. more uncapped at higher water content and the dehumidifier cant keep up.

Thanks a lot for your time,
Bill

[Michael Bush]

> I usually leave the uncapped honey in there max 2 days due to hive beetles.

If you can get the humidity low enough the hive beetle larvae can't hatch.  20% would seem a good goal, but may not be doable in Florida...