how can I reduce water content post extraction?

[Amari]

A week ago I extracted my first OSR supers. The water content on my refractometer was 18%. The honey set hard in the buckets within four days - it was very viscous and required prolonged spinning and the frames returned to the hives were still quite heavy..
Worried that the next batch would be similar I extracted again today - combs about half capped. Shake test negative on most (had forgotten to bring refractometer). Now in the buckets I find water content is 21%! I have a warming cabinet - can I use it to 'dry' the honey?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[Hivemaker.]

how can I reduce water content post extraction?

A rotating disc honey dryer works really well.

 

[Nige.Coll]

was the honey warm when you tested it ?

 

[masterBK]

Can always feed it back using bulk feeder like a Miller or Ashforth and take if off a week later once they have had chance to process it a bit more . You won't, of course, get back the same volume as you gave them. Most of the 240 lbs of OSR I extracted yesterday was unsealed and it has a water content of 16.5% (I didn't expect this so checked several buckets almost in disbelief) The refractometer is working fine and not under reading.

 

[Amari]

A rotating disc honey dryer works really well.

Sounds an expensive bit of kit for a 5-hive apiary?

 

[Amari]

was the honey warm when you tested it ?

Good thought but no, about 3 hours after taking the boxes off the hives - so room temperature c. 18C. Does temperature of the honey make a big difference?

 

[Amari]

Can always feed it back using bulk feeder like a Miller or Ashforth and take if off a week later once they have had chance to process it a bit more . You won't, of course, get back the same volume as you gave them. Most of the 240 lbs of OSR I extracted yesterday was unsealed and it has a water content of 16.5% (I didn't expect this so checked several buckets almost in disbelief) The refractometer is working fine and not under reading.

I doubt if my marriage would survive another extracting session!

 

[Amari]

I've just awoken early with the thought that I could put a tray of calcium chloride crystals in the warming cabinet - I use them in my bee-equipment cabinet in the apiary and they are also used to prevent damp in caravans and boats - works a treat.

 

[fatshark]

Dehumidifier ... though you'd need to increase the surface area probably. I've used one successfully with incompletely capped frames.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Dehumidifier ... though you'd need to increase the surface area probably. I've used one successfully with incompletely capped frames.

If you haven't got one Lidl is selling a small one at the moment. Can't remember how much it is though.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Sounds an expensive bit of kit for a 5-hive apiary?

Very expensive... but if your switched on, you could make one yourself and it would cost very little.

 

[Cazza]

I doubt if my marriage would survive another extracting session!

Do what I do and get up a couple of hours earlier in the morning before HWMBO does. Kitchen all clean and tidy by the time they surface.
Cazza

 

[For want of a better word]

Very expensive... but if your switched on, you could make one yourself and it would cost very little.

Some more and better information would be appreciated I am sure

Personally I would only use OSR honey for cooking... it even gives mead made from it a distinctive note of Mazola!

Yeghes da

 

[Amari]

A week ago I extracted my first OSR supers. The water content on my refractometer was 18%. The honey set hard in the buckets within four days - it was very viscous and required prolonged spinning and the frames returned to the hives were still quite heavy..
Worried that the next batch would be similar I extracted again today - combs about half capped. Shake test negative on most (had forgotten to bring refractometer). Now in the buckets I find water content is 21%! I have a warming cabinet - can I use it to 'dry' the honey?
Thanks for any advice.

In the event the honey in the two 21% buckets crystallised 3 days after coming off the hive and extracted the same day. It is now almost rock hard.
Questions: does this rapid set indicate that the honey is, after all, ripe and OK to cream and sell with a 3 year best-before date? Can anyone tell me, for OSR honey, if time-to-set has been calibrated against water content?
Thanks for your thoughts

 

[Amari]

A week ago I extracted my first OSR supers. The water content on my refractometer was 18%. The honey set hard in the buckets within four days - it was very viscous and required prolonged spinning and the frames returned to the hives were still quite heavy..
Worried that the next batch would be similar I extracted again today - combs about half capped. Shake test negative on most (had forgotten to bring refractometer). Now in the buckets I find water content is 21%! I have a warming cabinet - can I use it to 'dry' the honey?
Thanks for any advice.

I've just awoken early with the thought that I could put a tray of calcium chloride crystals in the warming cabinet - I use them in my bee-equipment cabinet in the apiary and they are also used to prevent damp in caravans and boats - works a treat.

Update: end of July I had two honey buckets with water content on refractometer about 20% (I hate extracting so am always tempted to extract partially capped frames). Put the buckets in my T's warming cabinet @30C with about 100g calcium chloride crystals in a tuppaware container. Went on holiday 2 weeks. Result: container almost full of liquid c.150mls. Refractometer 17.5%.
Job done!

 

[Bee Bumble]

Update: end of July I had two honey buckets with water content on refractometer about 20% (I hate extracting so am always tempted to extract partially capped frames). Put the buckets in my T's warming cabinet @30C with about 100g calcium chloride crystals in a tuppaware container. Went on holiday 2 weeks. Result: container almost full of liquid c.150mls. Refractometer 17.5%.
Job done!

Useful information, thank you. I shall order some calcium chloride crystals for future use.

 

[poshpikey]

Are you sure it wasn't only water near the surface that was drawn off? If it was 20% and went down to 17.5% water then you have removed 2.5% (ie 1/40th) roughly of the contents of the two buckets as liquid. If it was only 150ml of water removed then that means the two buckets must be 6kg total weight roughly? or am I missing something? Maybe liquid that has been drawn off is then evaporated and gets out of the drier??

 

[user 6228]

Can always feed it back using bulk feeder like a Miller or Ashforth and take if off a week later once they have had chance to process it a bit more . You won't, of course, get back the same volume as you gave them. Most of the 240 lbs of OSR I extracted yesterday was unsealed and it has a water content of 16.5% (I didn't expect this so checked several buckets almost in disbelief) The refractometer is working fine and not under reading.

That's a usual reading from our hives for anything that passes the shake test and again capping seems to be "optional"

 

[enrico]

Just a tip, but I find that if you test honey with a refractometer that has been left in the bucket for a while, the 'wetter'honey seems to float to the top, if you then take a jar of honey from the tap at the bottom of the buket the reading is lots lower. If that happens I take a reading every 10 jars of honey. As it gets closer to a higher reading of water content I make sure that honey is used for my own consumption and is used quite quickly.
I suppose the honey with the higher water content must be of a higher density or something!
E

 

[bontbee]

Just a tip, but I find that if you test honey with a refractometer that has been left in the bucket for a while, the 'wetter'honey seems to float to the top,

That was a tip I was given by an experienced exhibitor - draw your show honey from the bottom of the tank as it's "denser" (sorry if that's the wrong word, still can't get my head around the difference between viscosity and density).