strained/filtered

[beeeee]

Is straining your honey the same as filtering your honey?

[Rader Sidetrack]

This could be a touchy subject!

Humor aside, for a small beekeeper, the practical answer is that straining and filtering are essentially the same thing, it is the size of the holes that the honey passes thru that is significant. If your filter/strainer range from 200 to 600 microns, the controversy around "filtering" should not affect your honey.

If you have expensive equipment intended to filter out much smaller particles, or are doing "ultra-filtration", then its a different situation. Here's one packer's perspective on this:
http://www.burlesons-honey.com/Honey...9/Default.aspx

[bevy's honeybees]

If your filter/strainer range from 200 to 600 microns, the controversy around "filtering" should not affect your honey.

200 micron is a finer strain than 600m, correct?

[Robndixie]

if you let it settle all the legs, wings, and cappings will rise to the top. is there any real reason to strain beyond that?

[Michael Palmer]

To me, the difference is...straining only removes the larger particulates using a cloth or bag. Filtering uses a diatomaceous earth filter that removes everything, including pollen.

[Michael Palmer]

if you let it settle all the legs, wings, and cappings will rise to the top. is there any real reason to strain beyond that?

All the particulates will rise to the top? Not in my experience. When I sell honey, I don't want any bits and pieces in the jar. Call it "raw" if you want, but the bees didn't put it there, you did.

[Robndixie]

All the particulates will rise to the top? Not in my experience. When I sell honey, I don't want any bits and pieces in the jar. Call it "raw" if you want, but the bees didn't put it there, you did.

well i'm not talking about in a matter of minutes. i'm talking about 100 gallon vats that were jarred out of that sat in an un-airconditioned extracting facility in central alabama. by the time we went from extracting to bottling we weren't finding bee parts or any other particles in the jars. this was when i was young and worked for a beekeeper that ran a couple thousand colonies. if you're running a 4 frame extractor and bottling the same day then no, it won't have time for the particles to rise. but we didn't strain anything and until you got to the last few gallons you didn't see particles. if you aren't trying to go from the hive to the table in a matter of hours there is no need to strain.

[Michael Palmer]

200 micron is a finer strain than 600m, correct?

Correct