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Super Thick honey foam during processing

12K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  Acebird 
#1 ·
All -

I've been beekeeping for a short time and have never encountered this situation, i.e. I pulled some of my 5 gallon buckets full of honey from the spring harvest this year and poured them into my bottling tanks. A HUGE amount of thick, almost pudding like consistency foam developed over a two day period on the top of the honey. Almost like the air bubbles do. Anyway, there was a slight smell of what I think was fermentation, but the "honey foam" tasted great. I removed the "honey foam" leaving the clean honey underneath. However, how do I keep this from happening and what caused it to happen. Also, I bottled quit a few bottles that now seem to be developing a small amount of this foam on the top of the bottles. I assume it's okay but would prefer my bottles to be clear honey. It took the bottled honey almost a week to show the slight amount of "honey foam". Am I doing something wrong?
 
#2 ·
my first guess would be overspinning in the extraction process. Your extractor is whipping air into the honey as it is extracted from the comb. Sometimes the temperature of the combs when you extract them will produce more foam.

Let the honey sit longer and allow the air bubbles to come to the top. Draw off the bottom.

cchoganjr
 
#8 ·
The real thick foam comes from proteins or fats. Better look into the uncapping process for errors, different uncapping strategies leave to different contamination with wax, look at the sieve - is it fine enough to hold back the cappings and pollen? Stop extracting combs with brood (;)) or use a queen excluder to get the pollen out of the honey combs. :thumbsup:
 
#14 · (Edited)
Heat rises so place the 100W bulb under your honey bucket, not too close or the plastic bottom of your bucket may get too hot. I cut down an old barbecue grill to fit inside the frame rails of a deep. I put the bulb under the grill inside the deep. I place the bucket on the grill, then encase the bucket with supers until covered. I use an inner cover on top to let some heat escape. Sometimes when it's really cold, I just use a top cover.
 
#16 ·
Follow up question. I'm going to get the moisture content checked, but I do "smell" a slight "sour" or alcohol type smell. I've never had fermentation in honey before but could it be that? How do I test? How do I fix it? The threads and posts I'm reading have me concerned that my honey may be fermenting and may end up spoiled. My bees and I worked way too hard this past year to let me screw it up...
 
#18 ·
Follow up question..
You might try sealing the bucket with saran wrap and see if the wrap swells. To test you have to measure the moisture content with a refractometer, available from the bee suppliers or wine/beer maker friend. A wine smell is an indication of fermentation. I have had it several times leaving honey on the hives in winter. Some honey is just high in moisture, or too high if taken off uncapped. I don't think there is a fix other than using the honey for another purpose.
 
#21 ·
When I extracted most was capped, but some was uncapped. I don't remember the exact % of uncapped, but I try not to take the uncapped when I harvest the honey. If a frame isn't mostly capped I tend to leave on the hive. I live in central Mississippi and we had an incredibly wet spring and summer this year. Could that have made a difference?
 
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