What to do

[thorn]

While we took a reasonable spring crop in early June the wet weather has done us no favours. An apiary of 6 hives is going to give us virtually nothing this month. But all the hives have 2 supers virtually full of unripe honey. It'll be long and unrewarding work to spin it off and feed back to them. I've no freezer nor the room for one in which to store the frames. So do I defer taking it till mid September in the hope that it'll be ready by then? It'll mean deferring the treatment that I was going to put on this week? What to do?

 

[masterBK]

I removed the last supers from my 20 hives last week and found that they had not capped quite a few combs. So used refractometer and found (taking several samples) that the honey in the unsealed cells was almost 20% water (legal but far too runny). Placed the supers in a small room (with no plants or water source of any kind in the room and with a window facing south so gets quite warm when sun is shining). I put a fan and a dehumidifier (which also has a fan built in) in the room set to max (35% humidity). 48 hours later the water content had dropped to 18% and the viscosity increased. The electricity cost (based on smart meter) of doing this was less than a quid.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I removed the last supers from my 20 hives last week and found that they had not capped quite a few combs. So used refractometer and found (taking several samples) that the honey in the unsealed cells was almost 20% water (legal but far too runny). Placed the supers in a small room (with no plants or water source of any kind in the room and with a window facing south so gets quite warm when sun is shining). I put a fan and a dehumidifier (which also has a fan built in) in the room set to max (35% humidity). 48 hours later the water content had dropped to 18% and the viscosity increased. The electricity cost (based on smart meter) of doing this was less than a quid.

I've had the same problem, quite a few of my buckets in the 19-20% range, I have reduced mine to approx 18% by putting open buckets in my warming cabinet at 40 degC for 24-36 hours.

 

[drex]

I have 3 supers on ( consolidated down from 4, as at one time they were all needed) . Virtually nothing capped. I am waiting another week as weather predicted to be good.
I usually just rely on shake test at apiary and use refractometer when I get the boxes home, but think this year will be testing at the apiary to save lugging boxes home, when it would be pointless to extract. Those boxes I will just get them to take the honey down into BB. Added to this, at last check they were eating stores

 

[Amari]

I've had the same problem, quite a few of my buckets in the 19-20% range, I have reduced mine to approx 18% by putting open buckets in my warming cabinet at 40 degC for 24-36 hours.

Add a tray of calcium chloride crystals in the cabinet does the job even faster
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00H0D46GE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[user 819]

These look interesting on ebay, a one way membrane to prevent moisture release once the silver foil top is removed.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/35391090...Fsw4IRX0N8RUPboQqTyG6k4kNQ==|tkp:BFBMwIHb2sNi

 

[blackcloud]

I've found the spring crop was much drier than the summer-17.5 vs 18.5
Ive got settling tanks tiny-trickling into settling tanks in the "honey room" with a big dehumidifier running.
Lost 1/2% in 24hrs so far

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I've found the spring crop was much drier than the summer-17.5 vs 18.5
Ive got settling tanks tiny-trickling into settling tanks in the "honey room" with a big dehumidifier running.
Lost 1/2% in 24hrs so far

Not being pedantic but is that one or two percent or half a percent?

 

[Pembroke]

These look interesting on ebay, a one way membrane to prevent moisture release once the silver foil top is removed.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/35391090...Fsw4IRX0N8RUPboQqTyG6k4kNQ==|tkp:BFBMwIHb2sNi

I've got some of those, I needed them for a leaky car recently. They are half full of crystals that absorb water that turns to gel. You're supposed to then throw them away when the crystals are all consumed, but I found you could take them apart (you have to cut off the membrane) and wash the gel out, and recycle the plastic bits. Got mine from Amazon but they're all the same.

 

[blackcloud]

Not being pedantic but is that one or two percent or half a percent?

At the time it was a Nought Point Five reduction
Now the highest reading is around Seventeen and Three Quarters of one percent,