Creamed honey starter

[nursebee]

I need to seriously get some creamed honey going but the starter I bought this year is real slow to get firm leaving me in a bind.

There is only one store that sells this stuff nearby and it is too hot to ship. THis leaves me tempted to try something like powdered sugar or dextrose to make a starter. Has anyone tried this and do you have any suggestions for me?

TY

[bee crazy]

Call Dadant. They sell a starter in powder form. I believe it sell for $2.75 / lb. It works well but I had to put it in a blended and grind it a little more. It tends to be a little grainy if not reground.
Here's a link

https://www.dadant.com/catalog/produ...roducts_id=418

[rainesridgefarm]

find someone that has smooth creamed honey for starter. The powder just does not due the job of making it nice and smooth.

[Chef Isaac]

DO NOT USE THE POWDER.... it sucks... trust me

how much seed did you use per batch? The recomended is one pound seed to ten pounds of honey.

If you need the honey to set up faster.... add more seed. It is that simple.

Another handy trick is to put it in your refrigerator. It will work.

[Dick Allen]

The starter sold by Dadant is actually dextrose. I bought their creamed honey kit, which contained a package of starter, a few years back. It worked ok, but may have been a bit gritty, although actually I don't really remember. Subsequent batches have always been made with a pound of creamed honey to ten pounds of liquid honey. Comes out nice and smooth.

[ian m davison]

Hi all

Can you guys really get away with adding stuff to honey to get it to set, and I can,t believe they sell a starter off the shelf.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surely you would be better off getting a few jars from another local beek and as said above pop them in a fridge to speed it all up if needed.


Regards Ian

[nursebee]

Problem is I am the one that provides the starter to others...

[rainesridgefarm]

Put it in the fridge and take it out at night then put it in in the morning. It will set up a little faster. You can also make smaller batches to get more seed started sooner. Take a 50/50 mix then do it again two days later keep it in the fridge it has worked for me.

[Michael Bush]

I bought a hand flour grinder at the health food store. You can take any granulated honey and grind it until it's smooth and use it for starter.

[Chef Isaac]

Michael has a good point with the grinder. At some point, if you take seed from another batch and do that a lot, as time goes on the crystals become bigger.

[ooptec]

Here in Saskatchewan many comm. keeps winter their bees in a bldg. kept at between -5°C to +5°C and if honey stored there too it creams beautifully w/o any adding ANYTHING to or other manipulations. I believe that would be approx. the temp. of a fridge.

cheers

peter

[Chef Isaac]

It all depends on what kind of honey it is. Different honey will cream versus others.

[Troy]

Are you saying that some honey will not cream? I know that some honey is more likely to crystallize spontaneously than others, but I thought ALL honey would crystallize if seeded.

Is this not true?

[Chef Isaac]

Yes, honey will crystalize however, some do at faster rates than others. Seed helps plant to seed of crystals.