Removing Moisture in Honey before Extracting

The moisture level in honey can be lowered by holding honey supers in a drying room with low humidity and warm circulating air. This video shows how we do it.

[@saeedsalimbamerdah3594]

سيد بوب تحياتي لك. كم نسبة الرطوبة التي لا توثر على تخزين العسل وكلما زادت على هذه النسبة لا يمكن هنا تخزين العسل ?

[@seldanalinas1469]

Thanks a lot for your generosity and your help.

[@williamsauve6978]

Thanks Bob!!!

[@Blackswan19874]

Hey Bob , thanks for the videos and your transparency about all your beekeeping techniques. On a small scale we are set up the same way to bring our moisture level down . My question is ; can you actually cause problems by keeping the fans on the honey more than 48 hours , is there a limit ?

[@bobbinnie9872]

There is such a thing as too long. It depends mainly on the humidity level. We shoot for 3 to 4 days in our situation.

[@treywhite921]

Thanks for your videos. We run about 5000 hives in Mississippi. We are not really pleased with the time and maintenance of our commercial honey dryer. Considering converting a room into something like this. Do you stack honey supers on solid bottom pallets or does the air need to pass through the supers? Love your videos.

[@bobbinnie9872]

We use four way bee pallets for pulling honey and holding supers in the drying room. They are solid pallets but do have the normal hive entrance. I know we could affect the honey faster if we cross stack or use special pallets but what we do works good enough to pull plenty of moisture out in just a few days. Using strong, forceful fans which drive the warm, dry air into the supers is the key.

[@treywhite921]

@@bobbinnie9872 thanks for the information. We are probably going forward with our drying room.

[@DailyFixNz]

I think I can make a better way to dry honey than under vacuum. And I'm sure the drying room could be made far more efficient and quicker with some rearrangement of the apparatus.

[@VENAL]

Hello Bob, I've always wondered, is it better to remove moister before extracting or after? Beside the procedure you have shown here there is also the honey dehumidifier as a machine which removes the moisture by rolling the blades and the dehumidifier is inside the device. Also the temperature is controlled all the way in this device. Asking because I can't decide whether to use this system which is very convenient or to use the device instead. The device has the disadvantage of the space limited compared to this. Only interested of the comparison between the two methods to decide which one is better and has no any side effect? Also how to you decide based on the frame to remove them or not? Thank you for the time.

[@bobbinnie9872]

Most of the beekeepers I know prefer to remove moisture before extracting. It has less equipment and cost involved. Also, some honey dryers use air hot enough to degrade the honey during the process. One of the reasons for removing moisture with a honey dryer after extracting is that you can rotate supers off and back on faster because it's not necessary to let let the bees get most of the moisture out before removing. For removing frames from colonies we simply check the thickness on the end of a hive tool.

[@VENAL]

@@bobbinnie9872 Thank you.

[@PHNursery]

Hi Bob, Excellent video. What brand and what source did you get those nice dehumidifiers? How much did they cost approximately?

[@bobbinnie9872]

We have two, Friedrich model D70BPA, rated at 70 pint per 24 hour period. We purchased them from Grainger Industrial Supply two years ago and I believe they were a little over $400.00 each. They're in a 30x40 foot room and together they pull the humidity down fast.

[@djg585]

Great presentation.

[@bobbinnie9872]

Thank you.

[@JaredLincks]

Question for you, if you have honey at 19.5% moisture level on a refractometer would you consider that acceptable to be harvested? These frames in particular also are partially capped so that 19.5%% is the uncapped part. What are your thoughts on the percentage of acceptable moisture? Always helped by your videos, thanks so much!

[@bobbinnie9872]

I would figure out a way to dry it before extracting. That number could cause you trouble. Something as simple as a box fan laying on the stack of supers for a few days with humidity less than 50% can do it.

[@JaredLincks]

@@bobbinnie9872 Thank you sir, I appreciate the feedback. I'll definitely be looking into a dehumidifier and box fan setup!

[@JaredLincks]

@@bobbinnie9872 Quick follow-up question, do you pick your dehumidifier on the basis of the square footage of the house or the room you want to use it in? Also, if I get a dehumidifier that covers say 2,000 or 3,000 square feet and use it in a 600-800 square foot room, would that be a problem? Thanks!

[@bobbinnie9872]

@@JaredLincks Your thoughts on overkill are actually the right thing to do. When we bring in fresh supers there's always a day or more of higher humidity levels in our room and we have a very good dehumidifier. Best to have more capacity than needed so it can work fast.

[@JaredLincks]

@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks for all of your input, very helpful!

[@ThatBeeMan]

Hi Bob. At 2:43, Where did you get these figures? I recall reading about these corelations a few years ago, and your figures tend to agree with what I read, as I recall, but I can't remember where I read these numbers. Can you help with a reference? Thanks.

[@bobbinnie9872]

There is a moisture table on page 896 of the 1999 Hive and The Honey Bee

[@ThatBeeMan]

@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks Bob!

[@raysbees7650]

Can you show what kind of fans and dehumidifiers you’ve got and where to get them?

[@bobbinnie9872]

The fans are construction site fans from Home Depot and dehumidifier is a Drieaz LGR 700 from Grainger.

[@kkinnersley]

Bob, does the moisture content at bottling affect the tendency to crystallize at all? Thanks.

[@bobbinnie9872]

I believe that thicker honey may crystalize slightly quicker but only slightly.

[@АнатолійАнатолій-ь2с]

Dear Bob Binnie. We are interested in a fine honey filter. We have heard that a fine filter consists of a squeak and some types of clay. The filter is capable of purifying honey coloring matter: carotene, chlorophyll, flavone compounds, etc. In Europe, light varieties of honey are preferred, in England all honey is light. Tell us about the device of such a filter, show it schematically, how it works ... Does it look like a fine filter for swimming pools?

[@bobbinnie9872]

I have seen such filters but don't have any experience using them so I have very little information.

[@АнатолійАнатолій-ь2с]

@@bobbinnie9872 I am grateful to you. I love your creativity, your beekeeping philosophy. You will pay attention to some old books from the times of the USSR up to the 90s. They can add a lot of creative ideas. Authors like Taranov. GF one of the books - "industrial technology for the production and processing of beekeeping products" and others. There are rare extensive scientific papers on honey processing. I have a brochure in my apiary; I don’t remember exactly what it was called. The brochure contains information on the restoration of the enzymatic activity of honey and dependence under various factors, conditions ...

[@maragrace820]

I am from Europe and my favorite honey is dark chestnut honey

[@macsbees5775]

I have 8 hive’s and three produced honey for me this year my third year beekeeping. I harvested and checked moisture content and it was 19 and 1/2% I’m in New York the honey is amber color and I put it in the fridge for a few days and it reduced to 18 and 1/2 but it’s not at all a thick honey moves very quick if I turn the jars in different directions. Is there anything I can do to better it? There was very little uncapped honey when harvested or why would they cap it with such a high content of moisture? I enjoy your videos and would appreciate any advice and thanks very much.

[@bobbinnie9872]

Oddly enough bees do cap honey that is too thin occasionally. It happens most often in warm and humid environments. If you heat it to 125°f overnight it will kill any yeast present and it won't ferment. Also, if you keep it in the fridge it won't ferment.

[@macsbees5775]

@@bobbinnie9872 thanks Bob I appreciate you.

[@trichard5106]

Thanks !!

[@bobbinnie9872]

Welcome!

[@hedhodgh]

Hi I want to know how hot the honey is while drawing in moisture. Does temperature of 45 degrees affect honey !!! I have a dehumidifier that I tried at 30% to 35% moisture withdrawal but the honey dropped from a range of 19 degrees to just 18.5 degrees. For 24 hours, the temperature of the honey was 37 degrees. As for the rate of 20%, the humidity of the honeycomb decreased from 19 to 17 degrees within 24 hours. It was a good result, but the temperature of the honey was 45 to 47 degrees. I hope you can help me. Which method is the best and does 45 degrees affect honey ??

[@bobbinnie9872]

45c which is 113f does have a degrading effect on the enzymes in honey and also effects taste and color. However, it takes time. For example the half life of the enzyme Diastase, which is common in honey, is 1000 days at 20c (68f). At 49c (120f) it is 14 days and at 80c (176f) it is 30 seconds. So you see that the amount of damage is not only temperature dependent but also time dependent. We try to keep our drying room below 100f (38c) and hold the supers there for a few days before extracting. We also strive to get our humidity below 30% but anything below 50% will have an affect. Hope this helps.

[@brucesnavely3603]

@@bobbinnie9872 Are you saying if a bottling tank thermostat is set above 100f the taste is going to be degraded?

[@Bharat_Honey_Hyderabad]

@@brucesnavely3603 Taste and enzymes are two different factors i suppose.

[@chadeikenhorst4333]

Do you have any issue with small hive beetle in the drying room?

[@bobbinnie9872]

Very little when our combs are not dark. With older combs, especially those that have had multiple brood cycles, trouble can begin around four days.

[@raysbees7650]

No issues with SHB?

[@bobbinnie9872]

Not if we only leave the supers in a few days.

[@АнатолійАнатолій-ь2с]

I watched the video and understood why China ranks first in honey production.

[@АнатолійАнатолій-ь2с]

My bribes are stacked on top of each other. Using a dehumidifier you can: significantly increase the number of families, use all the honey collection, avoid theft, abandon expensive equipment ...

[@soltanj733]

🙋🙋🙋🙋