Thick honey!! Help please..

[Snap 4]

Hello every1,

 

seeking for advices how to extract thick honey..

I managed to collected 2 boxes of honey this season, most frames were capped and some were uncapped..

as we spinned off the honey, the uncapped honey in frames did not come off, so I decided to squeeze the juice out of it

see it very thick,..

 

Now I’ve mixed my thick squeeze honey together with the loose honey and let it filtered..3/4 of the honey filter through but the rest just sit still in the drainer and too thick to drips through..!!

 

Could some body please send me advice how to complete my thick filter honey??

 

best regards,

jack 

Edited February 13, 2020 by Snap

[Trevor Gillbanks 6,846]

You need a hot/warm room for the honey and some agitator system (pricker at extraction time.  Very difficult with thick honeys without the proper extraction equipment.

 

[Snap 4]

Thxs u Trevor..

iam doing it in my garage and it not that warm either, I guest I will have to relocate the honey to somewhere that warmer then..

 

hey what about using a fish tank heater dipping it in the honey? Clean heater of course! Would the heat kill the raw honey chemistry?? 

[Sailabee 1,102]

Problem you will encounter is that very soon the sodding ants will move in. Can leave in dark coloured car to heat it up. I put the legs of the extractor in 3 litre ice cream containers with some water it to prevent them  overtaking the extractor.

[yesbut 6,230]

And if you heat it too much the wax will soften and gum everything up more

[Mummzie 736]

sounds like the same problem I asked about recently.

Best advice I got was to paddle the sludge to make it run.

Best idea was to how to use the honey to make mead.

Best solution- learn to enjoy Kanuka honey

 

[Alastair 8,627]

A fish tank heater is a bad idea. They get pretty hot but rely on the water moving to keep temperature OK. In honey that will not happen, it will burn the honey near it, but not warm the rest of the honey.

 

A good way to warm your quantity of honey would be put the container in a black plastic bag, and leave it in the hot sun for a day on the hottest place on your property.

 

After that, strain it with one of these. https://www.trademe.co.nz/business-farming-industry/farming-forestry/beekeeping/listing-2532056610.htm?rsqid=54ca153fc38444078a6712b529446d4b-001

 

Kanuka honey is a high quality honey full of good things. Enjoy. 

 

 

[Snap 4]

Ok I placed the honey bucket in my hot house and came home today noticing the honey is much loosen up.. but the wax deposits cloaked up the mesh and not much honey been dripped through..

I might need to switch over to my cone mesh filter tomorrow to see if draining will be  better! 

Hey that wax presser from trademe look good! 
Thxs very much

[Alastair 8,627]

If it is kanuka honey you will probably never get it to drain through a seive. A presser or some way to squeeze it through a filter is best.

 

But it is worth it, you will love the honey.

[Snap 4]

hey guys just an update and to closed this off.. the method of leaving thick honey in a warmer room temperature eg glass house..

after that pour honey into a cone filter sleeve and squeeze off the honey. 
it work for me as I was very tempted to wrap up my honey extraction..

 

many thxs for all input! 

[Alastair 8,627]

But. Do you like the honey?

 

I bet it is some of the best honey you have tasted. 

[Snap 4]

22 hours ago, Alastair said:

But. Do you like the honey?

 

I bet it is some of the best honey you have tasted. 

Thxs Alastair, to be honest I haven’t had a chance to eat my honey yet..but I stirred up everything and stored into a  20l container.

last year I dispensed honey into small individual bottles..

over the winter, the honey when into crystallized. Therefore this year I decided to keep bulk in container and thinking it can easily be stir back to liquid

 

[Sailabee 1,102]

15 minutes ago, Snap said:

 

over the winter, the honey when into crystallized. Therefore this year I decided to keep bulk in container and thinking it can easily be stir back to liquid

 

Sorry, not a prayer of stirring it back to a liquid unless you cream it. Will turn into one big crystalised mass.

[Snap 4]

Creaming honey” Ohhh nooo! Sound like I just tripped over another problem! 
sorry guys iam beginner..

But even if honey turn into crystallized can place container in hot water and stir till liquify again?? 

[Alastair 8,627]

Yes you can melt it.

 

But the way of least work, is to pack the honey into jars straight away while it is still liquid. And store those jars in a deep freeze. Not a fridge. The honey will not freeze, but the cold temperature slows everything down and the honey will stay un crystalised for years.

 

Not a fridge because that has the opposit effect, at that temperature honey will crystalise quickly.

[Maru Hoani 649]

On 14/02/2020 at 10:57 AM, Snap said:

Thxs u Trevor..

iam doing it in my garage and it not that warm either, I guest I will have to relocate the honey to somewhere that warmer then..

 

hey what about using a fish tank heater dipping it in the honey? Clean heater of course! Would the heat kill the raw honey chemistry?? 

Face your vehicle to the sun and wind the windows up. 

[Snap 4]

8 hours ago, Alastair said:

Yes you can melt it.

 

But the way of least work, is to pack the honey into jars straight away while it is still liquid. And store those jars in a deep freeze. Not a fridge. The honey will not freeze, but the cold temperature slows everything down and the honey will stay un crystalised for years.

 

Not a fridge because that has the opposit effect, at that temperature honey will crystalise quickly.

I got those 500gm plastic bottles..so I pack honey in plastic bottles and put them in freezer( frozen side of the fridge) ???? 
How long can I leave them in the freezer??

or does it have to stay in the freezer to be un crystallized?? 

Edited February 16, 2020 by Snap

[Oma 460]

Hi @Snap I always put some of my honey in the freezer straight after I put it into the jars.  Some types honey will be liquid when you get it out of the freezer but some honey very very slowly crystalizes.  The good thing about the freezing honey I have discovered recently is, because the whole aging process is slowed down so much by freezing when it does crystalize it does so with a fine grain and not large sharp crystals.  This is what you are trying to achieve with the creaming process.  That’s the up side, the down side is you might fill up the freezer if you don’t have a large one.

[Alastair 8,627]

Yes. The frozen side of the fridge. The part of the fridge that is cold enough to make ice, that is where you can put them.

 

You can leave them there very long time. Even for years.

 

It must stay there all the time to be un crystalised.

 

Then you take them out, the honey will not be crystalised, it will be runny and nice to eat.

EDIT sorry Oma i started writing before your post was visible.

 

Didn't mean toi contradict, you are right some honey will slowly crystalise in the deep freeze. Now, I have bought a deep freeze just for honey, I did have some honet start to crystalize in it so I turned the temperature right down as low as it can go, and best I can tell so far, honey is not crystalizing any more. Fingers crossed. 

[Snap 4]

Many thanks Oma, Alastair and others..

the infos was very helpful:) 

 

[OBEE1NZ 1]

I had the same problem because my hives had some manuka & kanuka in them but solved it by scraping foundation (plastic frames) clear of cells and honey, then pressing it in a honey press I hired from my club (Auckland Beekeeping Club).

I had the bulk honey in a 20ltr pail for about 4 days and when I was ready to bottle it, it had started to solidify at the sides.  I used a hairdryer to warm the sides of the pail, then stirred the thick into the runny.  It was then easy to fill the containers. 

[HSV_Darren 275]

This post was a insightful read for me, it may of solved my honey extracting problems, 15 boxes of honey the won’t budge, I don’t think I had a chance of getting the honey out and saving the drawn frames for reuse, while doing this in my garage.

This year the whole valley was the whitest I’ve seen in years with Kanuka, and it lasted for quite a while, so I guess that’s what I got.

I crushed and strained the lot, but also wasted ALOT, I just wanted it to end!

plus side now is that I got enough wax now to be self sufficient.

[Bighands 1,064]

On 28/04/2020 at 11:46 PM, HSV_Darren said:

This post was a insightful read for me, it may of solved my honey extracting problems, 15 boxes of honey the won’t budge, I don’t think I had a chance of getting the honey out and saving the drawn frames for reuse, while doing this in my garage.

This year the whole valley was the whitest I’ve seen in years with Kanuka, and it lasted for quite a while, so I guess that’s what I got.

I crushed and strained the lot, but also wasted ALOT, I just wanted it to end!

plus side now is that I got enough wax now to be self sufficient.

What are you doing with the wax?

 

Wax posts split to new topic : 

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by yesbut

[Sailabee 1,102]

This year, with the excellent flowering of manuka/kanuka several with hives out west in our hobby group resorted to using a small local commercial extraction plant at Silverdale  - it cost $25 / box - no minimum number of boxes and that meant that they retained their drawn frames for next season. Stopped the frustration, and only had to jar off from buckets.

[lexy 98]

 I have a similar problem to deal with at some point. I spun out my honey into 15 buckets (about 25kg kg each). Usually at that point I'd homogenize it all in a vat and straight into jars.

 

Due to lockdown the jars didnt arrive and it solidified in the buckets... now i have to figure out how to melt it all at the same time whilst minimising HMF increase as much as possible (its manuka so HMF will be lab tested)

 

Im thinking perhaps sitting the buckets in a bath at about 37c and opening them to stir occasionally until melted?