>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