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Subject:
From:
Ivan McGill <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 23 May 1996 07:25:09 -0700
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>Ivan McGill wrote:
 
>> In the rainy season or if in doubt if the honey is not ripe enough I have a
>> small dehumidifier which is used for 3 or 4 days if the supers are
>> extremely wet. I have taken honey that is 18% down to 17%. I don't use it
>> to ripen honey just to take the moisture down to an exceptable %. If you
>> leave it on too long the honey gets very dry and hard to extract.
>>
>> IvanI keep bees in s.e.Kansas and it is usually quite warm and humid in
>the fall when I do my extracting.  I usually extract in September.
>Some years I have found the moisture content of the uncapped honey
>to be lower than that of the capped honey.
>I run a water jacketed sump tank that holds 20+ gallons of honey. This
>unit puts out quite a lot of heat even though I only keep it at 100 deg.
>It seems like every year my honey will tend to run a bit high on moisture
>like in the range of 18-19% as brought in from the hive.
>In order to keep the moistue down I run 2 small dehumidifiers.  This also
>adds to the heat in the honey house so I installed a window air conditioner.
>This unit also dehumidifies air in the honey house and makes the temperature
>bearable to work in.
>I will spend a day or two bringing in supers of honey,stack them on 2x4
>boards and stagger them a bit in the stacks for ventilation and run a fan
>to circulate the air.
>Put this all together and my moisture content in the barrel is in the range
>of 17.2 to 18.2%.
>I have found the only reliable way to judge moisture content is to test it
>with a refractometer.  Honey stored for a number of months must have a
>moistue content of no more than 18.5%.  One bad barrel can pay the cost of
>the refractometer.  If one beekeeper can not justify the cost maybe by
>going in with several other beekeeping friends it could be justified.
 
Answer:
If you use the dehumdifier in the heat room (and I forgot to mention that I
use it before I extract) it brings down the moisture content quicker.
 
About 10 years ago I visited a some beekeepers in the northern part of our
province they were shutdown because of moisture content. I mentioned that I
had been using the dehumidifier for sometime. They ordered the largest one
they could get and within 3 days they were extracting again. They used it
in the heat room.
 
As far as cost of a  refractometer and a dehumidifier to a small beekeeper,
lose a few customers because of high moisture content honey and the cost is
quite small. Good news travels slow, bad news fast.
 
Ivan

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