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Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 08 2:44 pm Post subject: Honey
Can anyone tell me why some honey is clear and runny whilst some is opaque and set? Also.......do some commercial producers 'pack it out' with glucose syrup as recent purchases have just tasted like sugar syrup? thanks

lottie

Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 5059
Location: ceredigion

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 08 3:10 pm Post subject:
mine starts off clear and runny and then crystallizes---think some varieties stop runny much much longer---depends what the bees have foraged---commercially I think they beat it to crystallize it---I could be wrong generally---only know what mine does

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 08 4:29 pm Post subject:

What Lottie says - It usually depends on the type of nectar being foraged for instance - Rape Flower Honey crystallizes so quickly that it is very difficult to extract if you don't do it almost as soon as its capped in the hive - borage honey on the other hand is quite thin and very runny.

All honey's will crystallize over time especially if they are stored somewhere cold - although the honey I took off the bee's last summer still hasn't.

I doubt very much if they pack out the honey with glucose because honey will start to ferment if the concentration is not kept just right - it likely that the bee's collected nectar from flowers that weren't very strong tasting - hence the weak flavour

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 08 5:37 pm Post subject:
I thought runny hunny was heat treated to make it stay runny? Dunno where I read that. I reckon that semi-solid hunny is easier to handle, so I always buy that.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 08 5:50 pm Post subject:

To make it stay runny you gently heat crystallized honey so that it melts - I think it stays runny after that.

If it tastes of nothing much, it's probably from bees that have been fed a lot of sugar. I understand that in large commercial operations - particularly in the US where they can have hundreds of hives in one place - the bees don't get a chance to forage very much and their honey is literally converted sugar. Bees will only forage 1.5 miles from the hive, so if you've got loads on one place there's only a certain amount food to go round.

toggle

Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 08 5:53 pm Post subject:
I've set honey by keeping it in the fridge a while before now

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 08 10:18 pm Post subject:

I start my bee course in a couple of weeks

My biggest decision will be where to put the hive. It can't be in our garden at the moment. It's only a small garden, and full of small boy and large, bouncy dog.

My kind neighbours have offered me space in their garden, but they also have two small boys and a geriatric dog. My Mum has offered me space too. - 20 minute drive away, no boys or dogs, but in the middle of dairy farm farm land - Maybe less good for foraging than the edge of town where we are, with plenty of flowery gardens and the commons with lots of gorse. I'm inclined to my Mum's but I will ask advice.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 08 10:23 pm Post subject:
I would say your mum's - they can forage off dairy land - clover and stuff. We are moving our four hives out of the garden precisely for the small-boy reason - and the poor old chickens got chased around in a comedy fashion a few times last year. Mochyn and her old chap have kindly offered us a corner of their patch.

lottie

Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 5059
Location: ceredigion

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 08 11:47 pm Post subject:
They can forage up to 2 miles--we are totally surrounded by fields and a very few scattered houses but I got the best tasting honey ever last year

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 08 9:22 am Post subject:

Jamanda wrote:

I start my bee course in a couple of weeks

Go Mandy! - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did mine - it was the best decision I've made in a long while - I wouldn't worry too much about the foraging at your Mum's - they are resourceful little madams and will probably find plenty of pollen to harvest - are there plenty of tree's and/or hedging because that will be full of things like blackberries, sloe's etc plus there are always loads of dandelions on pasture land and they love dandelions - mine brought loads in last year.

Chez - Are you saying the bee's chased the chickens ? - We are just debating where exactly to house our chickens - we were considering using the space between the greenhouse and the bee's - there is an apple tree in front of the bee's and my bee's are very placid

Green Man

Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5272
Location: Rural Scotland.

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 08 9:25 am Post subject:
Doesn't the thicker honey still have some wax in it?

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 08 9:25 am Post subject:

Cho-ku-ri wrote:

Doesn't the thicker honey still have some wax in it?

No - you extract the honey from the wax unless you are selling it on the comb

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 08 9:38 am Post subject:

jocorless wrote:

Chez - Are you saying the bee's chased the chickens ? - We are just debating where exactly to house our chickens - we were considering using the space between the greenhouse and the bee's - there is an apple tree in front of the bee's and my bee's are very placid

One of our hives is a bit frisky, AND has quite a strong following trait. The garden is sloped and their hives are at the top - so as they come in, they are going past the chicken house at person-head-height, which seems to disorient them. This particular hive had quite an old queen last year I think - and it made them particularly grumpy. There were two occasions where the guard-bees followed us down the garden and decided that the chooks were also a threat.

We have talked about putting netting up around them - but I am worried about Leo bumping against them in toddler-mode, so we have decided that it's better for them to go to a quiet corner of Mochyn's place.

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 08 10:39 am Post subject:

Ahh - OK - we should be OK then - I'm planning to raise a new queen from my hive this year so we can expand upto 2 hives at home and hopefully buy a nucleus of bee's in from the guy who supplied me with the original nuc - which will start the out apiary I'm planning at my Mums - they have a lovely big lawn area at the top of their garden which never gets used - so I can get 2 maybe 4 hives up there easily

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 08 10:42 am Post subject:
That sounds fine - ours are a bit close together where they are at the moment and I messed up putting the supers on so they didn't have very much space. And of course there was the whole 'being unable to lift due to being heavily pregnant' thing, so they didn't get managed as well as they could have done. We learned A LOT, though .

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