Honey harvest, cloudy honey

[louiseww]

I did my first honey harvest on Monday and used exactly the same method as last year but the honey is cloudy. I thought I had done the right thing by not harvesting before because of the bad weather and leaving the bees short of stores. It still tastes delicious but doesn't look great - last year it was clear and beautiful. I have checked the internet and suggestions are that it has already started to crystalise and have also wondered if the wet and humid weather is responsible - has anyone else had this problem? I won't be selling this as it was only 30lb from two hives and will do for the family.

 

[Moggs]

Photo's?

It could be crystallisation, it could be other suspended material, it could be fermentation. Did you filter? What was the moisture content (were most of the cells capped)?

 

[louiseww]

Thanks - I extacted with my electric 4 frame extractor - I filtered with a fine seive and also with fine muslin to just remove the debri as last year but it didn't make any difference. I didn't check the moisture content as I don't have a refractometer (do many beekeepers have this expensive piece of kit). I suppose there may have been a little uncapped on the frames, but vast majority was capped and I left the uncapped honey alone.

 

[Poly Hive]

Most likely incipient crystallisation.

Experiment with one UNCAPPED jar in the microwave and warm it gently and see if the honey clears.

PH

 

[alanf]

I didn't check the moisture content as I don't have a refractometer (do many beekeepers have this expensive piece of kit).

Not particularly expensive at under 20 quid on ebay, there's a good video on the site as to how they are used. Some of us do like the gadgets...

 

[psafloyd]

I have something similar in that there is a slight haze. I tested with a refractometer and it came out under 20%.

Could be OSR, but unlikely for mine as the nearest field I could find is about three miles away. Could be others, though.

I will try a water bath to see if it clears, but it is so nice, I'm not too bothered.

 

[Elaine]

I extracted some at the weekend - and it is also cloudy - I guessed it was some OSR from earlier in the season, mixed with whtever they are bringing in now. I haven't had a chance yet to try to identify the pollen. When I tested water contebt it was showing 17 - so not a water content problem.

 

[Frisbee]

Blackberry is cloudy and there's been an awful lot of blackberry in flower recently, due no doubt to the early warm spell we had - rapidly followed by cold and rain I know, but blackberry is very hardy.

Frisbee

 

[Elaine]

Blackberry is cloudy and there's been an awful lot of blackberry in flower recently, due no doubt to the early warm spell we had - rapidly followed by cold and rain I know, but blackberry is very hardy.

Frisbee

There is a lot of blackberry around us - I'll try to find time to check what pollen in the honey!

 

[alldigging]

I'll try to find time to check what pollen in the honey!

How do you do that?

 

[Elaine]

How do you do that?

Mix up a solution of honey and water, centrifuge, pour off the liquid, and look at what is left under a microscope - the different plant species have different shape pollen grains. I am still very much at the beginner stage when it comes to working out which is which, but I am gradulally building up a library of referece samples of the plants around where I live, to compare to those I find in the honey.

 

[masterBK]

Is it cloudy because of incipient granulation because it contains honeydew. If honeydew then this can be revealed under the microscope with the presence airborne pollens, sooty moulds and other microfungi, bits of aphids, crystals etc. Also characteristic malty taste

 

[Ruary]

Mix up a solution of honey and water, centrifuge.........

However if you don't have a centrifuge you can dilute the honey 10gms honey to 100cc water, stir well to have the honey dissolve and then let it settle in a draft free room for at least 24 hours. decant and mount and examine

 

[alldigging]

Mix up a solution of honey and water, centrifuge, pour off the liquid, and look at what is left under a microscope - the different plant species have different shape pollen grains. I am still very much at the beginner stage when it comes to working out which is which, but I am gradulally building up a library of referece samples of the plants around where I live, to compare to those I find in the honey.

Oo that sounds interesting! What x? Microscope do you use? We have a 200x pc one .. Have been looking for an excuse to get 400x if that's be useful!

 

[MandF]

However if you don't have a centrifuge you can dilute the honey 10gms honey to 100cc water, stir well to have the honey dissolve and then let it settle in a draft free room for at least 24 hours. decant and mount and examine

Im glad I read this - I kept small samples of all my extractions last year (2 hives, 2 extractions each, kept separate) with the intention of checking what pollen was in each one. Have the microscope (£50 lidl special), but not got round to it yet as I don't have a decent pollen reference guide.

I was going to just dab a bit of honey on the slide!

 

[MandF]

Further to that, does anyone know of a good reference source on the internet for this purpose - ie honey pollens, easy to find by shape/characteristics?

 

[louiseww]

Thanks for all the answers everyone!
We had a pollen recognition workshop at our association last year and I was really keen to give it a go but the 'expert' said that it is very difficult to identify the different pollens and it takes experience and experts such as the forensic scientists, It was a good workshop and showed as all the different shapes of the various pollens, but they have to be stained to show up!

 

[DanBee]

Further to that, does anyone know of a good reference source on the internet for this purpose - ie honey pollens, easy to find by shape/characteristics?

The books will be a better reference IMHO, particularly when starting out, since they are consistent, portable, and - to a degree - spill and drop resistant

Rex Sawyer's book, available from most places e.g. IBRA Bookshop:

The major parts are the identification key, allowing you to narrow down pollen grains by ~9 different characteristics, and B&W photos of specimens for comparison.

The CD adds a spreadsheet version of the same key, with good quality colour photos of most (all?) of the specimens, but seems to be out of stock at the usual places.

Alongside these, William Kirk's book on pollen loads is the best bang/buck for the oft-asked question of "What pollen is xyz colour?":

William spent an awful lot of time matching the colours desired with the colours resulting from the printing press to get these right, so it's probably the best colour reproduction you will get. FWIW any internet pollen colour reference will be misleading unless both you and the author have calibrated your respective monitors.

 

[MandF]

When I have been inspecting slides for nosema, pollen granules are clear enough to see without any staining, but unless you have a very good idea of the pollens you are looking for, finding the exact match (via latin name) on a general pollen website is next to impossible - hence the question (and hope) there is a beekeeping resource somewhere, which only has pollens we would find in honey (excluding any airborne ones that might happen to get into a crop).

I hope there is.

 

[MandF]

The books will be a better reference IMHO, particularly when starting out, since they are consistent, portable, and - to a degree - spill and drop resistant

Rex Sawyer's book, available from most places e.g. IBRA Bookshop:

That is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!