Mailing list for the Person County Beekeepers Association, Roxboro, NC

[Randall Austin <s.randall.austin AT gmail.com>]

Bob,

Before you write off those uncapped frames of honey, try the "shake test" to see if the honey is sufficiently dry. Hold a frame by both ends horizontally over a clean surface such as a newspaper, some paper towels or the top of your outer cover. Give it a very strong up-and-down jerk. If the honey is too wet, it will rain out of the cells onto the newspaper. If it is dry enough, it will all stay put in the cells.

This test isn't perfect but should work pretty well. Even better would be to use a honey refractometer to get a true moisture percentage. If you buy a refractometer, make sure it one that is calibrated at the correct end of the scale for honey (a little bit of moisture in a whole lot of solids), not beer, wine or salt water aquariums (a little bit of solids in a whole lot of moisture).

If the honey is in fact too wet, then I like your idea of freezing the frames until needed by the bees later. Or you could extract it and freeze what you get from the extraction, also saving it for the bees later. Or you could extract it and use the wet honey to make mead, if you do so within a few weeks or so.

Others in the club may have other suggestions. If so I'd like to hear about them.

Randall

On 6/26/2016 8:56 AM, Robert Brauer wrote:

Hi Randall.  Thanks for passing along your harvesting article - excellent information!  One question:  I checked my honey super on Friday and it was only about 30-40% capped so I don't think I should extract it, but I'm concerned about a summer swarm and losing what is there.  Should I remove it and put it in the freezer?   I'm using mediums above my brood box so I could use these frames to supplement stores this fall.  

Thanks, Bob

On Wed, Jun 22, 2016 at 11:59 AM, Randall Austin <s.randall.austin AT gmail.com> wrote:

I'm looking forward to a fun time, as always, at the PCBA Extraction Workshop!

Folks who have never harvested honey before may want to take a look at the article "Spinning Gold" <here>, as well as "Is Tigger Crazy?" <here>. They won't answer every single question you have but maybe they'll get you thinking about even more questions that you can raise at the workshop.

Note that you don't have to bring honey for extraction to attend. This is, above all, a learning event so come even if you are "honey poor" right now but would like to learn and share info with others.

Don't forget to respond to Whitney as requested below. And THANK YOU to Tom & Linda Savage for hosting us again! We couldn't do this without their generosity.

See you all on Saturday!

Randall Austin

On 6/22/2016 10:59 AM, Whitney Barnes wrote:

The PCBA's annual extraction workshop and potluck lunch will be this Saturday, June 25th at 10 AM at Tom and Linda Savage's farm at 609 Whitmore Road in Hurdle Mills. Please email Whitney Barnes (spud1296 AT charter.net) no later than noon on Friday, June 24th to let her know how many will attend from your family, whether you would like to bring frames of honey for extraction and how many, and what you are planning to bring (drinks and paper products provided by club). This workshop is an excellent opportunity to watch, participate, and learn about the honey extraction process.  Come and hear suggestions on how best to separate the bees from their honey, the different methods for uncapping the honey, and lots of other important aspects of harvesting honey and wax. If you have already extracted and bottled some honey this year, please feel free to bring it for a peer review especially if you are thinking of entering at the fair this year!

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