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