ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
List archive
- From: "Janet Austin" <jcaustin AT visionet.org>
- To: "'Orange County, NC Beekeepers'" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>, beekanzi AT gmail.com
- Subject: Re: [ocba] harvesting ubcapped honey
- Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 15:55:01 -0400
Title: Message
To address the original question, The Hive and the
Honey Bee (1992 edition) p. 895-896 says,
"When
exposed to air of R.H. [relative humidity] less than the equilibrium value,
honey loses moisture at the surface, but much more slowly below the surface. The
moisture content of honey (even in the comb) can be reduced by exposure to air
or R.H. less than the equilibrium value. This may be attained by raising the
temperature of the air or by mechanical dehumidification. Using a dehumidifier
to reduce R.H. in the drying room to 30%, Killion (1950) reduced the moisture
content of honey in 130 supers from 21 to 17% in 23 days at 27 [degrees] C.
Circulation of heated air is also used for this purpose. Townsend (1961)
described a drying room holding up to 72 supers in which warmed air at 32-35
degrees C (90-95 degrees F) is passed through, removing 1 to 3% moisture in 24
hours. The lower the temperature of the air before heating, the more efficient
is the process, since its RH is lower after heating." This practice is commonly
employed in commercial honey production.
Stating it a little more simply, The ABC and XYZ of
Bee Culture (40th edition) p 214 says, "If warm air is forced through supers
filled with honey, even though the cells are capped, it is possible to remove as
much as one percent moisture from the honey in 24 hours. The precise quantity of
moisture that may be removed varies with the moisture content of the honey, the
volume of the air and the relative humidity in the room."
And about the whole question of sealed versus unsealed
honey, ABC/XYZ says on p 462, "After the bees have ripened honey, they normally
cover the cells with wax cappings. The cells that contain honey, but
are not yet capped, are referred to as unsealed. As a general rule we think
of unsealed honey as not being ripe; however, this is not always true and
unsealed cells can contain honey of a proper moisture content. Also, cells of
honey covered with cappings can still take on or lose moisture; water vapor can
move through the cappings. The role of the cappings is not clear but presumably
they prevent the contamination of the honey by bees walking over the surface of
the comb."
Further gleanings from these 2 sources:
Enzymes are added to nectar while it is in the gut of the forager bees
and the receiving house bees. Sometimes the house bees will put drops of nectar
in holding cells, and then later consolidate them. Presumably more enzymes would
be added in the gut each time the nectar is moved, but they only do
this "sometimes" so it isn't an integral part of the process. Ripening
takes several days (not longer). The enzymatic action continues on after
ripening, capping, extraction, bottling, etc. until there is nothing left for
the enzymes to act on (i.e. until every bit of sucrose is converted to
glucose and fructose), or until artificial heating stops the
process.
My interpretation of this information is that if the
cells are half-filled with honey and have been for a while, then they have
ripened honey in them. The shake test will help verify that (give the frame a
sharp shake over a piece of paper; if wet stuff comes out then we'll assume the
water content is too high). Ripened unsealed honey is no more or less guaranteed
to be of the proper water content than honey that is capped.
We'd
love to get these sorts of discussions on the "forums" section of the OCBA
website: http://www.theocba.org/ !
Randall Austin
|
-
Re: [ocba] harvesting ubcapped honey,
Tom Wright, 09/02/2006
-
Re: [ocba] harvesting ubcapped honey,
Janet Austin, 09/03/2006
- Re: [ocba] harvesting ubcapped honey, Tom Wright, 09/04/2006
-
Re: [ocba] harvesting ubcapped honey,
Janet Austin, 09/03/2006
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.