Does Honey get old

[pondman]

First time to post here so please work with me if I have posted in the wrong place. I bought a big lot of used bee hives supers ect. Along with all that I got was 3 1/2 supers of capped honey I don't know how long the person had this setting around. It was in his basement He didn't know how long it had been setting. I was wandering if it would be ok to feed this to my bees or to use. I tasted alittle an it tasted ok.  Thank You
James

[bassman1977]

I've heard of honey in egyptian pyramids still being good after thousands of years.   :shock:  You are in good shape. :D

[Horns Pure Honey]

should be fine to use. :D

[Jerrymac]

The only concern would be if there has been any chemical contamination.

[Ocean]

they used honey to put alexandre's the great body in so it won't go bad or decompose while they transport him from the country he died in back to his country were he was from :)

use that honey, dont think of throwing it away, or giving it to someone ( except me if u dont want it :) ) lol

[FordGuy]

risk of rodent or roach fecal matter- you should not consume it , but put supers outside and let bees clean it up. they will thank you.  I did the same thing a month ago.

[TREBOR]

I thought leaving it outside wasn't a good idea cause
it may lead to robbing.

[Jerrymac]

That's why you are placing it outside, for the bees to rob it out. You wouldn't want to leave honey outside that you don't want robbed out.

[FordGuy]

just painted some hive bodies...paint is dry, but should I wait till it cures a few weeks?  Does it matter to the bees?  thanks

Edit to add: man am I an idiot...I meant to start a new thread...

so as long as I am here, let me add one more tidbit - when I gave my old honey to the bees, I had them all in one stack and there was some fighting - so next time I'd spread them out to perhaps avoid mortality.

[bassman1977]

Just let it dry.  I've had one painted and on the hive within 24 hours.  Don't paint the inside though.  That can be bad.

[Anonymous]

I also let my bees clean up the old honey from the squeezing and straining.  I always get a kick out of the bees after they have located the leftovers.  I usually put it on a potting table in the yard.  The bees look like the old prop driven airplanes taking off from a carrier without a cat launch.  They walk to the edge of the table and take off.  Some are so loaded that they drop out of sight for a second or two before they get fully airborne and rise back into view.  They almost have too heavy a load to fly.

[JP]

if the honey is capped, then nothing got in it like roaches or rodents. I don't understand, someone gave you the supers and doesn't know how long they've been in the basement? Was this their supers? If you don't have any info to go on, before consumption I would have some analyzed if this is economically possible. Like Jerrymac said you should be a little leary if you don't know where it came from, I would be.

[Phoenix]

Don't feed old honey to the bees...

Old honey contains high levels of HMF(hydroxy-methyl-furfural) which for humans, is harmless, but for bees is a poisonous drug.

New honey contains 1 to 5 mg/kg HMF. In some parts of the world it is forbidden to sell honey for human consumption with more than 40 mg/kg HMF, even though it's harmless to us.

Honey deteriorates with aging and/or heating and with this the HMF increases. Only fructose will become HMF, so depending on the variatal of honey and it's fructose content, some deteriorate faster than others.

Heating the honey will raise it's HMF contents rapidly. The longer and/or hotter it is heated, the higher the HMF levels will become. Even when honey is stored at 68 degrees it's HMF content raises 1 mg/kg per month. Heating honey to 160 degrees will raise the HMF levels to more than 30 ppm in 5 to 10 hours depending on the fructose content.