Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: RHBee on April 11, 2013, 12:06:00 am

Title: Reducing honey moisture content.
Post by: RHBee on April 11, 2013, 12:06:00 am
All that I have read indicates that to reduce the moisture content in honey you need to increase temperature and expose the honey to a low humidity environment. Has anyone ever tried to make a dehumidifier from an old chest freezer or some other type of closed container?
Title: Re: Reducing honey moisture content.
Post by: bailey on April 11, 2013, 12:13:16 am
Inside the house in the ac in a 5 gallon bucket allows for drying.
Slow though
Title: Re: Reducing honey moisture content.
Post by: rbinhood on April 11, 2013, 09:50:27 am
I had a gentleman tell me he used an old clothes dryer with the belt on the drum removed and a shoe rack to reduce the moisture in his honey.  He said by using a low heat setting it worked great and did not take but about two hour to reduce the moisture content by about 2.5 to 3 percent.  Not sure how well it worked but he swore that it worked great.
Title: Re: Reducing honey moisture content.
Post by: BMAC on April 11, 2013, 10:08:35 am
just put a dehumidifier in a fairly small room.  say 10 by 10.  Put it on high and empty the water twice a day.  You will be fine.  If you make it too small you may overheat and melt your wax.
Title: Re: Reducing honey moisture content.
Post by: Lone on April 11, 2013, 10:35:05 am
Hello Ray,
I don't understand.  Why do you reduce moisture content?  Is it because you extract before it's capped, or extract during high humidity?  Can you reduce it too much?

Lone
Title: Re: Reducing honey moisture content.
Post by: Mbeck on April 11, 2013, 12:43:31 pm
I had good results stacking supers over grate and blowing fan through them while running two small dehumidifiers. It may take a couple days. Our cabbage palm honey is wet even when capped, I pulled some last year before it was capped and it dried faster than the capped honey.
Title: Re: Reducing honey moisture content.
Post by: BeeMaster2 on April 11, 2013, 12:57:22 pm
Another way is to take your 5 gallon bucket with a gate valve opened a little bit and let it drip into another bucket, in a room with the AC running full blast.
Lone,
When your humidity level runs above 90% during the day and 100% every night, the honey often comes out at 19% and we need to lower it.
Jim
Title: Re: Reducing honey moisture content.
Post by: D Coates on April 11, 2013, 02:04:13 pm
Has anyone ever tried to make a dehumidifier from an old chest freezer or some other type of closed container?

That's exactly what I've got as a warmer.  Never used it as a dehumidifier but I know it will work. The drip catchers I have under the spigots invariably end up with a little honey in them.   Within a day or two it ends up cold honey stiff and tacky though it's between 100-105 degrees in there.