Honey 'churner' - any good?

[BeeKeyPlayer]

I'd like to make some set honey. David Evans raved about the Rapido / Rasant honey creamer which he used on oilseed rape honey. I don't have any honey like that though.

Do you have any experience of using this device - which Thornes sell as a 'honey churner'? It would be good to know before spending £60 +delivery. Many thanks.

 

[blackcloud]

That's a lot of money for a paddle mixer regardless of how fantastic it is- note that the beekeeping suppliers also charge £40 for the same refractometer you can get for less than half of that elsewhere.
I don't make a huge amount of softset so the kitchen mixer is just fine

 

[Garry R]

I have a friend who has a honey churner but said when he got it there were some really shorp bits which scratched his plastic buckets badly and so had to file those bits off to smooth them Not what you would expect from a £60 bit of kit. However it works really well

 

[drex]

This is my churner. Made from a flattened stainless steel spaghetti ladle. Cost about £2.
Working brilliantly for last 10 years

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

That's a lot of money for a paddle mixer regardless of how fantastic it is- note that the beekeeping suppliers also charge £40 for the same refractometer you can get for less than half of that elsewhere.
I don't make a huge amount of softset so the kitchen mixer is just fine

I'm not planning on making a lot, and I have a good kitchen mixer (for bread) so I should maybe start with that. Which hooks / mixer blades do you use?

 

[blackcloud]

Just the regular cage type.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

just a faddy piece to gull more money out of the beekeeper, just buy a normal corkscrew mixer and seed the honey properly

 

[Erichalfbee]

I'd like to make some set honey. David Evans raved about the Rapido / Rasant honey creamer which he used on oilseed rape honey. I don't have any honey like that though.

Do you have any experience of using this device - which Thornes sell as a 'honey churner'? It would be good to know before spending £60 +delivery. Many thanks.

I bought one. It certainly smashes crystallised honey in a bucket but it’s not soft set. Laurence from BMH bought it off me to do a review on his YouTube channel. You could look there.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I'm not planning on making a lot, and I have a good kitchen mixer (for bread) so I should maybe start with that. Which hooks / mixer blades do you use?

You can soft set a small amount with a jar of Gales spreadable to see how easy it is

 

[Mint Bee]

Horses for courses. All my honey sets in buckets, so its warmed to 30C ish and this stirrer used when I need to jar to mobilise the honey. It sets loosely in the jars and can be spooned out, without ever setting into one lump. @Erichalfbee as creamed honey seems to be no longer acceptable, what would you call this product?

https://www.theapiarist.org/creamed-honey/

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

as creamed honey seems to be no longer acceptable, what would you call this product?

sludge

 

[Mint Bee]

It sells well

 

[Newbeeneil]

I'm struggling to get my set to "set" at the moment. Did as I always do, mixed in about 8% seed and stirred for a couple of days. jarred and put in the warming/cooling box with some chiller blocks to get the temp to mid teens. still running after a week!

 

[blackcloud]

Blimey eight percent?
I've never used less than a quarter

 

[ics19]

mixed in about 8% seed and stirred for a couple of days.

Yeah, as above, not enough seed, it's 10% minimum here and when stirring over a couple of days you should be cooling as well, not just when you jar it up, else you're not breaking up the crystallization - at least that's my take

On the honey churner, that's what we've got and works well in a 30lb bucket, no problem with quality, it was somewhat cheaper a few years back though. It's a could design for buckets as being shallow it doesn't mix air in from the surface which a taller design must do

 

[Newbeeneil]

Blimey eight percent?
I've never used less than a quarter

I've always used between 5&10% with no problems. I think it's the ambient heat as keeping it down to low teens is difficult.

 

[nantmoel]

I have a creaming machine the Konigin one, I always use at least 10% seed, which I keep each year. It's mixed for 7 days, 15 minutes every hour. I don't attempt to make it until September when its started to cool down, it needs 14 days in the jars in a cool place for it to set. I sell it as 'Soft Set' honey.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Yeah, as above, not enough seed, it's 10% minimum here and when stirring over a couple of days you should be cooling as well, not just when you jar it up, else you're not breaking up the crystallization - at least that's my take

I cooled it during the first couple of days while stirring in the buckets and normally jar after a couple of days.
I just checked and it looks like it's just starting to stiffen.....

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

I bought one. It certainly smashes crystallised honey in a bucket but it’s not soft set. Laurence from BMH bought it off me to do a review on his YouTube channel. You could look there.

Thanks Dani. Helpful video from Laurence. Perhaps because he started with a more liquid honey, he didn't get David Evan's 4 minute miracle creamed honey.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

sludge

I'm trying to unpack this. It seems that anything called 'creamed' honey does not claim to be 'set'. So if you're looking for set honey you'd be disappointed. But is creamed honey such a bad thing? If it's stable and spreadable, what's not to like? (That's not a question to a honey show judge!)