OSR noobie, please help!

[StevenHart]

Hi,

This is the first time I've encountered OSR - it's in full flower about half a mile from my new out apiary. I removed a super this afternoon that is about 50% capped, but the uncapped parts are starting to crystalize. My refractometer shows the capped as being around 19% water, but the uncapped/setting being as high as 26%.

Do I just put the setting/too wet frames back and accept I’ll have to scrape or cut out the honey later on. Advice welcomed.

Thanks

 

[pargyle]

You have an extractor ?

Spin it out ... you then have two options:

1. Feed it back to the bees who will mix it with other nectar and re-process it. You might still get honey setting from the rape honey that's in it but it won't set as quickly.

2. Can you get hold of a domestic de-humidifier ? Put the buckets in a sealed small room (or a cabinet of some sort). Leave the buckets open but put a cloth over them to keep anything getting in them. Set the dehumidifier going .. Honey is hygrocopic - it will absorb moisture from the atmoshere but if the atmosphere is drier than the honey then the moisture content will reduce. Over a few days (Time varies with atmospheric condiitions) the water content will reduce to below 20% ... you can then decide what to do with it.

Cream it and soft set is the best bet for rape honey.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Hi,

This is the first time I've encountered OSR - it's in full flower about half a mile from my new out apiary. I removed a super this afternoon that is about 50% capped, but the uncapped parts are starting to crystalize. My refractometer shows the capped as being around 19% water, but the uncapped/setting being as high as 26%.

Do I just put the setting/too wet frames back and accept I’ll have to scrape or cut out the honey later on. Advice welcomed.

Thanks

A local beek used to spin frames very slowly to spin out uncapped honey/nectar, clean the extractor, then uncap the comb and spin at top speed.
I tend to give the frames a good shake to get of the anything that is too runny before I uncap but I do use a refractometer to test as well.

 

[Amari]

Hi,

This is the first time I've encountered OSR - it's in full flower about half a mile from my new out apiary. I removed a super this afternoon that is about 50% capped, but the uncapped parts are starting to crystalize. My refractometer shows the capped as being around 19% water, but the uncapped/setting being as high as 26%.
Do I just put the setting/too wet frames back and accept I’ll have to scrape or cut out the honey later on. Advice welcomed.
Thanks

Difficult to understand your situation and readings. If 'uncapped' is beginning to crystallise then it's beyond ripe and refractometer should be well below 20%. If your 'uncapped' is crystallising then the 'capped' will be more so and I would expect a reading of less than 19%.
I have 47 years experience (Sorry!) of OSR. I would check the readings again and also do a 'shake test' as above. Extract all frames asap (except those which are shake test positive ie. drip), put into a settling tank, and test the resulting mixture. My guess is that the readings will be less than the critical 20%.
If more than 20%, in the absence of a dehumidifier, I put my honey buckets in a box with a tray of calcium chloride (used for drying boats, caravans and damp cupboards).
I'm assuming this is OSR honey and not a crop from something nearer eg. horse chestnut, hawthorn, fruit and flowering cherry trees.

 

[pargyle]

Difficult to understand your situation and readings. If 'uncapped' is beginning to crystallise then it's beyond ripe and refractometer should be well below 20%. If your 'uncapped' is crystallising then the 'capped' will be more so and I would expect a reading of less than 19%.
I have 47 years experience (Sorry!) of OSR. I would check the readings again and also do a 'shake test' as above. Extract all frames asap (except those which are shake test positive ie. drip), put into a settling tank, and test the resulting mixture. My guess is that the readings will be less than the critical 20%.
If more than 20%, in the absence of a dehumidifier, I put my honey buckets in a box with a tray of calcium chloride (used for drying boats, caravans and damp cupboards).
I'm assuming this is OSR honey and not a crop from something nearer eg. horse chestnut, hawthorn, fruit and flowering cherry trees.

All good points ... and I like the calcium chloride option - probably cheaper than a dehumidifier as well.

 

[iann41]

I have an Ebac dehumidifier. Pricey but good and British made. It costs me £1.50 a day to run (on for 24 hours). Peanuts compared to the price of a bucket of honey.

 

[StevenHart]

Thanks All,

Very helpful suggestions.

1. Feed it back to the bees…
2. Can you get hold of a domestic de-humidifier ?...
Cream it and soft set is the best bet for rape honey.

I had thought of extracting it and feeding it back to the bees, but wasn’t sure how well the extractor would cope with part crystalised honey. Last time I tried, although on non-OSR part set honey, there was large amounts left in the frames which I ended up scraping out. I’ve not currently got anywhere I could run a de-humidifier.

A local beek used to spin frames very slowly to spin out uncapped honey/nectar, clean the extractor, then uncap the comb and spin at top speed.
I tend to give the frames a good shake to get of the anything that is too runny before I uncap but I do use a refractometer to test as well.

Extracting, clean up and extracting again sounds very labour intensive to me. As it was only one super, I shook out the too runny honey then scraped the frames for the remainder.

Difficult to understand your situation and readings...
If more than 20%, in the absence of a dehumidifier, I put my honey buckets in a box with a tray of calcium chloride (used for drying boats, caravans and damp cupboards)…

My bad for not explaining better - It’s a mix of other nectar plus the OSR, which I only noticed recently. I should have done a recce of the area after getting this apiary.
I roughly separated the too runny from the runny plus part set – think I’ll try the calcium chloride trick on both tubs.

Thanks again for the advice

 

[StevenHart]

I have an Ebac dehumidifier. Pricey but good and British made. It costs me £1.50 a day to run (on for 24 hours). Peanuts compared to the price of a bucket of honey.

Good to know. I'm going to give the calcium chloride trick a go first. Do you run the dehumidifer in a room or a cupboard of some sort? My first thought was I've got nowhere to run a dehumidifier, but I'm now wonder if her-in-doors wouldn't mind me making use of the airing cupboard for a day or two.

 

[StevenHart]

I put my honey buckets in a box with a tray of calcium chloride...

Does it take long to reduce the water content and do you need to stir the honey at intervals?

 

[Haughton Honey]

If more than 20%, in the absence of a dehumidifier, I put my honey buckets in a box with a tray of calcium chloride (used for drying boats, caravans and damp cupboards).

......and I presume with the lids....off!