How do you bottle your honey?

[Apis629]

I understand making sure everyting is clean and sterilized (i.e. honey bucket, extractor, knife, bottles, etc.).  My main question is, "Is it nessesary to pasteurize honey and do a boil/steam seal on the jars like one wouls preserves?"  I have a harvest comming up this week and all the books I've read make no refference to this.

[Anonymous]

You don't need to "can" your honey.  If you want, you can buy shrink wrap seals for your jar tops.  Otherwise, make sure your containers are clean and dry and just screw on your lids.

[Horns Pure Honey]

I dont boil mine due to I sell pure honey and I also dont can it either. :D

[Apis629]

Ok, I wasn't sure if the Hydrogen Peroxide in the honey, alchohols, and general acidity were enough to prevent pathogenic infestation...thanks.

[Jay]

Nathan,
All I do when I get my jars is, run them (and their lids) through the dishwasher (my wife says "you don't know who touched those") and then open the honey gate and fill the jars and then put the lids on. I don't order the saftey seals for the lids but they are available from most of the supply houses that make the jars available if you want to use them.

[Michael Bush]

>"Is it nessesary to pasteurize honey and do a boil/steam seal on the jars like one wouls preserves?"

Not necesarry.  IMO it's a bad idea to heat honey.  It tastes SOOOOOOO much better if you don't.

[Apis629]

Ok...thanks for the advice.  I know that heating honey can delay crystalization but it can also destroy flavor so I was wondering if I should have or not.  Thanks for all the info.  Unfortunately, given hurricane Wilma is comming close in the next few days, I'll have to wait on collecting honey untill Tuesday.