Honey set in bucket

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chalkie

House Bee
Joined
Mar 20, 2009
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Location
Tyldesley/Lancashire
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
5+
Got a few 15 kilo buckets of honey left over from last year (10-10-2010) that has set, there was no osr visible in the fields near the hives and was wondering if this is the natural process as the batch i had the previous year which was jarred has only just started to crystalize.

The honey was not filtered just left in the settling tank then into the buckets, if this is not osr will it when warmed up return and stay runny.
 
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Most UK honey will set within a year, especially if unfiltered because particles provide a seed for crystallization. If you melt it and filter it it will probably stau liquid for a good while. Even osr will stay liquid for longer the 2nd time around.
 
Difficult to say if it wont crystalize again. Can I ask why you put it into a settling tank if you were then putting it into buckets?
 
You give no time scale and say no'visible' OSR.

Full 'monofloral' OSR is likely to set in a very short timescale (some of mine, only coarsely filtered, set in a few days), but later crops may not granulate so rapidly. The bees may have found some OSR beyond your visible field - there is a lot of it about. Finely filtered honey will granulate more slowly and it will depend on storage temperature, as well.

If warmed thoroughly to dissolve all crystals and filtered through a fine mesh, it may stay runny for some time, but will eventually granulate again. Remember HMF levels will increase over time and especially when heated.

RAB
 
Difficult to say if it wont crystalize again. Can I ask why you put it into a settling tank if you were then putting it into buckets?

Was put in settling tank with the intention of filtering and jarring up, but as i had some jars left over thought it best to put into buckets and filter and jar it as needed.

You give no time scale and say no'visible' OSR.

Full 'monofloral' OSR is likely to set in a very short timescale (some of mine, only coarsely filtered, set in a few days), but later crops may not granulate so rapidly. The bees may have found some OSR beyond your visible field - there is a lot of it about. Finely filtered honey will granulate more slowly and it will depend on storage temperature, as well.

If warmed thoroughly to dissolve all crystals and filtered through a fine mesh, it may stay runny for some time, but will eventually granulate again. Remember HMF levels will increase over time and especially when heated.

RAB

It was taken of late september and stored till i extracted in october, no problem with extraction, the buckets where checked in february when moved from my garage to shed and it was still runny.
At what temperature should it be warmed to as i will be heating it up in a couple of old brood boxes with a 40 watt bulb beneath them.

thanks
 
Just to resurrect this thread and ask, could this set honey have been turned into a soft set honey, if so what would have been the best way to do this, i still have a bucket left.
 
Sus bees answer is as they say in my part of the world "short & sweet like a cuddy's gallop". But doesn't really help you.

I am not an expert and have never made softset honey but if I was in your position I would gently warm the honey until soft then follow the video at

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/video.php?do=viewdetails&videoid=64

Hope this helps until somebody more knowledgeable comes along.
 

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