Set honey

[Nige.Coll]

My honey goes from the extractor into a heated sump, from there it is pumped to a settling tank. It sits in the tank and after a couple of days it is put into buckets without being filtered. the buckets than go in the storage shed.
When i sell it it goes as is. What they do with it is their business.
If I need to jar it I heat it the same as everyone else does to a minimum temp to liquify it but it still isn't filtered, unless it is OSR then it is never liquified. It is then bottled and sold.
There are too many pretending they don't do this.
Everyone that sells liquid honey heats it to 40c or there abouts.
Set honey from OSR 35c.
Plenty of people lie about their honey saying it isn't heated when it is to some degree. It's RAW lol.
You cannot sell liquid honey or creamed honey without having put some heat into it.
Seeded honey is even worse as you need to heat the honey to 50c to seed the bloody stuff.
It's BS and exploited by many for more £'s.
You can't kid a kidder mate.

 

[BugsInABox]

There are too many pretending they don't do this.

I don’t do this.

 

[Nige.Coll]

I don’t do this.

You don't heat honey to jar it ?
Do you jar it all at extraction then sell it all as set ?
How do you manage crystal size in jarred honey ?
How do you establish how much you need to jar and how much needs to go in buckets ?

 

[BugsInABox]

You don't heat honey to jar it ?
Do you jar it all at extraction then sell it all as set ?
How do you manage crystal size in jarred honey ?
How do you establish how much you need to jar and how much needs to go in buckets ?

I don’t sell anything. I do jar at extraction yes. No filter beyond muslin. Crystal size does vary. When I bought honey, my preference was for similar.

 

[Nige.Coll]

I don’t sell anything. I do jar at extraction yes. No filter beyond muslin. Crystal size does vary. When I bought honey, my preference was for similar.

I see,
We are at different markets kid.
I'm a small scale beefarmer I have shifted 2 tons this year and in danger of running out, I may have to buy some in.
Next year I'm hoping for 4 ton.
This year has been a baptism of fire, 1200 frames drawn, 2.2 tons of honey and 50 colonies added to the mix with 50 mated queens raised.
next year i want to increase by another 30.
When it comes to professional beekeeping I'm an amateur I know this.

 

[BugsInABox]

Yes different markets.

 

[ericbeaumont]

I’m in east London on the edge of Epping Forest.

Plenty of borage anywhere near Loughton and Epping but though it sets pale as lard, a dark nectar in the mix - sweet chestnut or ivy - would give the colour. Did you extract before ivy flowered?

 

[Swn58]

Don't forget to keep a jar labelled with the year. Never open it, do that every year for comparison and memories!!!!!

I try to do that. I have an unopened jar from two years ago that is still clear and runny.

 

[enrico]

I used to think you had to heat honey to keep it runny......load of rubbish, depends on the nectar. I have a jar of lime honey still runny after ten years. I have jars of borage that stay runny. Just because you heat honey to keep it runny does not mean we all have to!

 

[drex]

Like Nige.Coll I do heat honey to make it pourable in order to jar. I do not like to heat more than is needed. If a honey is going to set naturally, why would I want to heat it to 60 in order to keep it runny. I would choose a batch that has shown me it is reluctant to crystallise to make clear honey.
Like Enrico says it all depends on the nectar and the balance of sugars therein.
We get a lot of OSR in East Anglia, so customers are used to set honey

 

[Nige.Coll]

I used to think you had to heat honey to keep it runny......load of rubbish, depends on the nectar. I have a jar of lime honey still runny after ten years. I have jars of borage that stay runny. Just because you heat honey to keep it runny does not mean we all have to!

That's lucky.
The only honey I have that hasn't crystallised is honeydew.
Everything else has crystallised. It does the same every year.
No borage around here for the bees to forage on.
Most has a 16% to 16.5% water content and sets within a couple of months in the storage shed. Probably because it's cool in there.

 

[Nige.Coll]

Like Nige.Coll I do heat honey to make it pourable in order to jar. I do not like to heat more than is needed. If a honey is going to set naturally, why would I want to heat it to 60 in order to keep it runny. I would choose a batch that has shown me it is reluctant to crystallise to make clear honey.
Like Enrico says it all depends on the nectar and the balance of sugars therein.
We get a lot of OSR in East Anglia, so customers are used to set honey

The reason some heat it to 60c is so that they can sell OSR or similar normally set honey as liquid.
Not something I do myself but it is common practice.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

... this Spanish honey seller states that Holm oak produces no nectar and that the honey is dark and produced by the myelates. What are myelates? Sap-feeders producing honeydew?

This page Honey Conductivity tester - Honey analysis says " It is measured to help discriminate the botanical origin of honeys, and especially to distinguish between floral honeys and honeydew honeys (myelates). ".

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

What proportion of beekeepers know of this word "myelate" with this meaning?