Honeybee-Honey Question ??
#3659318
02/23/13 10:41 AM
02/23/13 10:41 AM
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Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 129 MI
Big Skunk
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OP
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Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 129
MI
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Well I purchased a 3 lb. box of honeybees last Spring. They had a good year. I got a super of comb honey off of them. The comb honey is starting to sugar. I did eat it as fast as I could. I am heating a dozen boxes in a kettle today. I plan on letting it set over night to cool and then take the wax off and bottle the honey. Is there another way, maybe a better way to get the honey out of the wax?? Thanks for the help, BS
STOP AND SMELL THE COON BAIT
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Re: Honeybee-Honey Question ??
[Re: Big Skunk]
#3659637
02/23/13 01:36 PM
02/23/13 01:36 PM
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Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 129 MI
Big Skunk
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OP
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Well heating the comb and then letting it cool worked fine. I let the wax set up and removed it while it was still warm. This will be much better honey than that China stuff the stores sell. Maybe I need two hives..Ha. And away we go...
STOP AND SMELL THE COON BAIT
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Re: Honeybee-Honey Question ??
[Re: Big Skunk]
#3660885
02/23/13 10:23 PM
02/23/13 10:23 PM
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Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 129 MI
Big Skunk
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Yes warrior, cut comb honey. I have no equipment. I harvested one shallow supper of honey, cut the comb out and cut each into 4 squares and put them into plastic boxes. No bee club in this area. I read a lot and run a lot of you tube bee keeping short films. We have birds foot trefoil, sp?, flower in this area. It did turn out real nice.
STOP AND SMELL THE COON BAIT
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Re: Honeybee-Honey Question ??
[Re: Big Skunk]
#3665112
02/25/13 07:30 PM
02/25/13 07:30 PM
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 25 Heyburn Idaho
oldude
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Heyburn Idaho
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What warrior said. If you have only a few hives and can' barrow/rent an extractor then crush & strain is the way to go. If you heat your honey over 120 deg. then it ain't much better than store bought except you do know its real honey. Jim
Freedom ain't Free
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Re: Honeybee-Honey Question ??
[Re: Big Skunk]
#3665316
02/25/13 08:51 PM
02/25/13 08:51 PM
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 25 Heyburn Idaho
oldude
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Heyburn Idaho
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There is a you tube vid. that shows how that is done with jars,Its posted by Fatbeeman. Pretty cool.
Freedom ain't Free
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Re: Honeybee-Honey Question ??
[Re: Big Skunk]
#3665841
02/25/13 10:49 PM
02/25/13 10:49 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 284 southwest, VA
andyva
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Posts: 284
southwest, VA
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The USDA outlawed gums in the 30's or 40's, foulbrood epidemic, story goes that grandpa was not real happy about that. That would be pretty lazy, hollow log and a couple of planks. I've had the pleasure of talking to some old timers who didn't keep bees at all, they hunted them. Each of them swore the other ones didn't know how to do it. One caught bees and put them in a jar, one used bait, and what I found interesting was the one that carried some flour. When he found a bee on a flower he would flick flour on it with a headed out piece of grass and it would leave a trail like shooting tracers. His idea was that a bee didn't know how full it was, just how heavy it was, the weight of the flour told it it was time to go home. When the flour blew off it would go back to a flower.
I've tried some of their techniques and I always end up in somebodies yard.
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Re: Honeybee-Honey Question ??
[Re: dannyvp]
#3666672
02/26/13 10:30 AM
02/26/13 10:30 AM
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 25,828 Georgia
warrior
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Georgia
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For us slow people, the honey from fishers and other name brands is from China?? I can't speak to brands but yes most of the consumer honey sold retail on store shelves is imported. There are several problems with this, aside from the obvious damage to US beekeepers, such as adultered product and dangerous chemicals found in the honey. Here in the US the medications we use to treat our bees or the pesticides used against mites and beetles are regulated more so than in other countries and as a result imports from some countries, particularly China, have been banned due to harmful antibiotics and pesticides being found in the honey. This has led to "dumping" and fraudulent transhipping by foreign countries where bulk honey is shipped from China to a third party nation then re labeled as to country of origin then shipped here. Another ploy is due to the fact that the USDA does not have a legal definition for honey. This deceitful trick is to ship it to the US as syrup or something else and then the importer repackages and relabels, some have even been known to to blend cheaper corn or rice syrups and sell it as honey. This is not to say all honey on store shelves is tainted but it seems that every other month I read of another importer getting raided and slapped with huge fines, sadly though very few convictions. Business as usual I guess. Even outside of all this the ultra processed honey in pure form isn't the best for you. Bulk processors do two things to facilitate bottling and prolong shelf life, heat and ultrafilter. This is not to be confused with pasteurization as honey does not need pasteurization. The reason for heating to 140+ is twofold, first to make the naturally thick honey flow easier though the pumps used in mass bottling and to enable it to be microfiltered. The heating melts any sugar crystals present in the honey that would serve as a catalyst for granulation and the filtering removes particulates such as naturally occurring pollen grains which may serve as templates for crystallization and may cause dark or cloudy honey. This is all well and good in that it allows the mass production of a pretty product that will last on store shelves. The downside is that any honey that has been heated above 120 has had it's delicate and beneficial esters and enzymes destroyed.
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