Late rape honey extraction

[ginny]

Thank you Finman - that seems a better (& safer) option. I'll do that. Much obliged.

 

[Finman]

.
I have harvested rape honey 35 years. It is my main yield plant

By the way. I get 20 hectares rape from my cottage. I must move my hives from my cottage yard and move hives to the field from another places
If my bees fly to 2 km distance, I will loose the whole hive yield in that travelling.

1 km distance will drop yield 50%. To make work the whole year around then ...

.

 

[oliver90owner]

Finman's advice is good as long as you do not need to filter it before filling into jars (as you stated in your opening post).

 

[ginny]

Why's that Oliver90??

 

[Finman]

Finman's as advice is good as long you do not need to filter it before filling into jars (as you stated in your opening post).

WHAT!!!!!!!

GOOD HEAVENS!!! who says that honey need not be filtrated. Oliver, get a basic beekeeping book. All is not needed to say in that forum.

Of course you sieve tha honey after extraction. Then let it stand in warm that airfoam and rubbish comes to sufrace. Put grease paper on surface and all odds attach to the grease paper. Next day lifgt it off.

Grazy man that Oliver as long as...

 

[Skyhook]

WHAT!!!!!!!

GOOD HEAVENS!!! who says that honey need not be filtrated. Oliver, get a basic beekeeping book. All is not needed to say in that forum.

Of course you sieve tha honey after extraction. Then let it stand in warm that airfoam and rubbish comes to sufrace. Put grease paper on surface and all odds attach to the grease paper. Next day lifgt it off.

Grazy man that Oliver as long as...

Now, now.

 

[oliver90owner]

Finman, read Ginnys post. It says: before filtering & bottling??

If you filter at extraction, that is OK, If not as in this case and Ginny wants to, there is a big problem.

I don't filter my honey at extraction (only passed through a sieve) and always fine filter after melting and before soft-setting. Jarring softened honey does not allow that option, if that is what the poster wants to do. Comprendez?

 

[ginny]

Thanks Oliver90 - so bearing in mind I have only put the extracted OSR honey through the sieve on the settling tank & then put it into a plastic bucket, what do I do if it now sets & I want to fine filter it before bottling. Can I put it in a fan oven to warm it & why cant the bucket go in the 50 degree bathwater? Thanks for your & Finman's help by the way - I hope my inexperience is not causing too much confusion

 

[Finman]

Finman,
If you filter at extraction, that is OK,

I have filtered 45 years. In first years I did not get honey.

Are we so low...

 

[Finman]

what do I do if it now sets & I want to fine filter it

When honey is crystallized, you cannot filter any more.

When you filter the honey after extraction, it must be warm that it goes throught the filter. And in extraction too, honey must be 25-30C that combs become empty. Filtering and rising of airbubbles and rubbish to surface needs too warm honey.

It takes couple of days that honey is ready to be crystallized.


If you do not stir daily the honey or every 2 day, rape honey will be unpleasant coarse.

Yes, why bother????

You nurse hives the whole year to get honey and sell it. Then in critical moment you start to save your energy...and relax..

.

 

[oliver90owner]

what do I do if it now sets & I want to fine filter it before bottling.

You have to melt it completely. Any remaining crystals will surely slow the filtering process by clogging the filter pores.

I am not going to recommend you melt it in a fan oven as the thermostat may not be good enough, but I have done that. I stirred it well as soon as it became mobile enough and finished the melting process in my warming cabinet. Over-heated honey means spoiled to some extent.