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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Patrick Gannon" <beekanzi AT gmail.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] ocba Digest, Vol 19, Issue 5
  • Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 12:50:53 -0400

thanks janet
that was a great set of info.
sounds like i might be on track [a little anyway].
i will get a super off, get the dehumidifier rolling all-out in my workshop and use the refractometer every day to see how sugar levels progress towards the usual max (around 15-18% water).
will keep you posted
regards
patrick

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: harvesting ubcapped honey (Tom Wright)
   2.  propolis removal? (Brooking)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 12:01:13 -0400
From: Tom Wright <twright AT vicksburg.com>
Subject: Re: [ocba] harvesting ubcapped honey
To: "Orange County, NC Beekeepers" < ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <44FC4DC9.4010008 AT vicksburg.com">44FC4DC9.4010008 AT vicksburg.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Janet Austin wrote:

>     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
>
>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
>     [mailto:ocba-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Tom Wright
>     Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 7:13 PM
>     To: Orange County, NC Beekeepers
>     Subject: Re: [ocba] harvesting ubcapped honey
>
>     Patrick Gannon wrote:
>
>>     thx tom
>>     the ubiquitous enzymes.
>>     you are right on but the question is do the bees introduce
>>     it/them during nectar collection before deposit in combs or is it
>>     done [also] by caretakers long after. if the former, seems like
>>     dehydration will work. The enzymes are introduced by "receiver"
>>     bees before they regurgitate the nectar into the cells. I don't
>>     know the relative contribution of enzymes vs dehydration in
>>     curing. If mostly dehydration then dehydrator should work to some
>>     degree. How will you know that you have reduced the moisture to
>>     the point that you don't have to worry about fermentation?
>>     your question about leaving supers on.
>>     1) there is plenty of honey in the 2 brood boxes; 2) why leave on
>>     honey they won't use;Depending on the winter, they may or may not
>>     use it: the big push comes in the spring buildup. I'd rather have
>>     too much in the hive than not enough. Starvation is messy,
>>     especially if you get wax moths, and going into the first honey
>>     flow with a weak hive isn't much better. If you leave it on, you
>>     can always harvest next year. Are you being greedy? and 3) even
>>     if if i leave supers on there i think that would be too much open
>>     space for a tight winter cluster to deal with [heat
>>     conservation].The amount of open space in the hive is basically
>>     irrelevant as the bees don't heat what they don't have to,
>>     something people haven't learned.Why heat thousands of f2 of
>>     space when you only occupy a small part at any given time? As the
>>     cluster cools, cool, they move from the outside to the center of
>>     the cluster. They are sufficiently efficient at this that "dead
>>     air" in the hive is usually very close to the outside
>>     temperature. Likewise, you can keep the bedroom very cool if you
>>     "cluster" under the covers with a friend.
>
>
>
>     Tom Wright
>
>>
>>     great list you guys
>>     patrick
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>ocba mailing list
>>http://www.theocba.org/
>>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>ocba mailing list
>http://www.theocba.org/
>
Seems like a lot of work to get a little bit of honey, unless you're
desperate for honey. Hope youall's bees are ready for winter. They
should still be working goldenrod (you can tell because hives smell like
old socks), but honey is fine but tends to granulate)and wild asters. MS
state apiarist tells me it was a banner year.Drought reduced amount of
nectar but presumably concentrated it and low humidity assisted curing.
Many hives produced over 200lbs. Normal state annual average is about
55lbs. I hear rumors from out your way that SHB eggs go through
strainers and proceed to hatch in extracted honey, creating one Hell of
a mess. Hence you should pastuerize your honey. I have doubts about
this. Can anyone enlighten me further?

Tom Wright
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Message: 2
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 22:14:01 -0700
From: Brooking <cathyb2 AT earthlink.net>
Subject: [ocba]  propolis removal?
To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <EA9BC39C-787D-4C99-875B-C56F3795FE34 AT earthlink.net">EA9BC39C-787D-4C99-875B-C56F3795FE34 AT earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Did you find out how to get propolis out of your gloves?  What about
out of clothes?

Cathy


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End of ocba Digest, Vol 19, Issue 5
***********************************



--
Patrick J Gannon, PhD
Otolaryngology
212 2419236


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