>When honey is ready for harvesting is a question of general interest and some
>contorversy.   Here are some answers I have heard:
>
>1)   100% capped  (required for comb honey)
>
>2)    80% capped
>
>3)    Unable to manually shake nectar out of open cells
>
>4)    Whatever is in the supers at the end of the honeyflow.
>
>Personally, I try for 1) but usually end up at a combination of 2) and 3).
>  Most years, my honey tests out < 17 % moisture.   Anything that's really
>thin gets tested, and if its > 18.6 % moisture will get fed back to the bees
>as soon as the flow is over.
>
>W. G. Miller
>Gaithersburg, MD
 
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.
 
Ivan