> Date:          Mon, 4 Sep 1995 17:37:02 +0100
> From:          Gordon Scott <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:       Re: Heather honey
 
Gordon wrote:
 
> Heather honey is thixotropic, which means it behaves like non-drip
> paint. It's naturally a gel, but if you stir it up, for example with
> that wire roller, it turns to a liquid for a while and can then be
> extracted in a normal extractor. It turns back to a gel a little later.
 
Hei!
 
Here in mid-Norway 50 percent of our yearly crop of honey is heather
honey. First we have "summer honey" which is nearly pure wild
raspberry and when this is harvested at the end of July we move our
hives out to the heather moorland on the  coastal strip or one of the
islands until about now (ealy september).
 
As mentioned heather honey is thixotropic and not easy to centrifuge
out of the frames. Three factors are important if destructive
extraction is to be avoided:---
 
1) The supers should be stacked up on a support that allows placement
of a heat source underneath and the whole lot heated up over 1 or 2
days. The honey room should also be heated up ready for extraction
(somewhat over 30 centigrade).
 
2) After capping the honey needs to be agitated to further reduce its
tendency to stay put. Nobody I know uses one of those spiked paint
roller objects which look to me to be a bit weak-kneeded for the job.
For a small number of hives a manual agitator is the best answer --
this is made of metal with a bar handle, is rectangular say 2 inches
wide and long enough to stretch from top to bottom of a frame and has
a large number of spring loaded nylon plungers spaced so as to match
the cells on the frame. One has to plunge this up and down all over
each side of the frame several times immediately prior to loading up
the centrifuge.
Folk with large numbers of hives use a similar method but the
agitator is a hand or motor driven mechanical contrivance that moves
the frame backwards and forwards whilst agitating both sides at once
by means of two sets of spring loaded plungers.
Both these agitator types are costly (can quote prices later if
anyone is interested - havent got a catalogue to hand right now).
Some people claim that it is not necessary to cap first but I must
say I am doubtful about this.
 
3) The third factor is centrifuge speed -- this needs to be *very*
high. New comb usually doesnt survive even if one extracts a little
at a time with frequent turning of the frames. For this reason we try
to fill the heather honey supers with old dark frames.
 
Once the honey is out of the frames the temperature should be kept
high and pressure or centrifugal filtering (the preferred method
here) carried out. Gravity filtering just does not work, the honey is
too gel-like even now!
 
The honey we get is darkish, amber perhaps? with a strong distinctive
taste that one either loves or dislikes.
 
A final note:  before feeding the bees with sugar syrup for the winter
one has to be certain that *all* heather honey has been taken out as
the bees dont seem to be able to digest this honey completely and
when they inevitably need to get rid of the waste they either come
out and freeze or mess up the hive with a risk of sickness and a high
death rate both over the winter and in the early spring.
 
Cheers Tony.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Anthony N. Morgan (Tony)                 Fax: +47 73 89 62 86
"Stavshagen"                          E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Midtsandan                               Sor-Trondelag College
7563 MALVIK                              Elec. Eng. Department
Norway                                   7005 TRONDHEIM, Norway
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