[beginnerhives]

Do you heat your honey?

If so what is the YOUR purpose for heating?

What temperature do you heat your honey?

If any what amount of heat can be applied to the honey and still officially be considered raw?

Thanks for the help.

 

[sqkcrk]

Yes.

So that it more easily and more quickly will run through a nylon straining cloth.

140 degrees F.

That's where the contraversy comes. I guess I'd sauy raw was whatever temps might be reached in a bee hive. Say 100 degrees. Officially? Whose the official? The customer, I guess. Had a potential cust. ata Fair say that they had heard about eating locally produced honey for allergy benefit, but she didn't want to buy mine because the closest yard of mine to where she lives is maybe 20 miles away. She didn't look like she was suffering from allergies anyway.

Yer welcome.

 

[kbfarms]

We do not heat our honey. We strain through a metal mesh only. What's in it is what you get for unprocessed. If folks don't like it, they can buy from Kroger all the refined, strained, filtered, heated honey they want at a cheaper price.

 

[beekeeper1756]

I crushed the honey combs are a few cutouts that I did on feral bees. I squeezed the honey into a small plastic tea pitcher and then put that in the refridgerator. When it came time to process the honey, I set the pitcher on the concrete on the driveway so the sun could warm it up. I knew that cold honey would not flow very easily through the cheese cloth. Once it was completely warm, I strained it through cheese cloth.

Worked just fine and I still consider that to be raw.

 

[sqkcrk]

You are right to do so.

Only thing more raw, and to me the only truely raw honey, I used to have a label for my comb honey that said tha, is Comb Honey. Already packaged by the bees. But not really good by itself on the shelf.

You soud like you are enjoying your harvest. Good.

 

[mythomane]

You go over 100 degrees or so, then you begin to compromise the flavor and quality. EMF is nasty and you can taste the off-flavors. Also, keep your stuff out of plastic if you can. Most commercial producers heat it because it is easier, and their honey houses are set up where they have to pump their product Up. If you set up your extractor higher and use gravity, it makes more sense and heating is not really needed.

 

[sqkcrk]

What does your honey go into as it comes out of the extractor, myth? And what do you store your honey in? I store mine in plastic buckets.

 

[mythomane]

Extractor on a mezzanine. Honey goes into a stainless bottling tank. I let it settle, and then bottle into glass. You can keep your stuff in plastic -- that works. I just dont like it coming into contact with my product. My kitchen is the same way -- all stainless. Some people even heat their honey in plastic buckets, but I do not recommend it, as it leeches. Food grade plastics are supposedly ok, but I do not buy it. BPA is outlawed in other countries for a reason. If I was pulling in 50 tons a year or something I might have to do things differently, but I would never heat it to 140 if I could help it.

 

[sqkcrk]

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Roland]

Heat? - no

At what temperature is it not raw? - Anything over brood nest, about 98.6 F.?

A few days in the stainless tank seems to settle anything important.


Roland

 

[devdog108]

no heat here...just a little sun...like 20 minutes at most this time of year

 

[sqkcrk]

It's amazing how the curve of the earth just sucks right in at Covington<GA so they only get 20 minutes of sun during the longest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Shoot, thats less sun then they get in Nantahala Gorge. Nantahala is Cherokee for "Land of the noon day sun."

Or so I was told by Micky Littlejohn, a Cherokee. But he might have been pulling a fast one on this whiteman.

 

[Michael Bush]

>Do you heat your honey?

Not at all.

>If any what amount of heat can be applied to the honey and still officially be considered raw?

IMO, the temperature of a hive is hardly ever over 100 F so that would be what I could consider the upper limit of "raw".

 

[sqkcrk]

raw, adj. 2. uncooked, as articles of food
cook, v.t., 1. to prepare (food) by the action of heat, as by boiling, baking, roasting, etc.

So, I guess one perhaps would say that any intentional application of heat to honey is cooking it and therefore it is not raw. Because preparing honey "by the action of heat" is cooking and raw, basically, means uncooked.

Comb honey or any other unheated honey would be raw. By the strictest definition.

 

[bigbearomaha]

Honey temps change inside the hive, given the temperature at a given time of the year. There are natural up's and down's in temperature flux inside the hive, although the bees do their best to maintain or 'control' inside the hive temps by fanning , etc...

Once honey reaches a certain high temperature, the physical state of it changes to affect overall flavor and consistency. I would think that any temperature of the honey before it reaches that mark would still be considered 'raw' in terms of temperature.

I have bottled into both plastic pails and stainless steel and do not "artificially"heat or filter in any case. I haven't noticed any flavor change one way or the other using plastic or steel. I do use glass bottles in the end product.

Artificially heating meaning, to me, to put the honey on a stove or use some other heating device to raise the temperature to a pre-determined level. I have also heard this referred to as 'aggressive' heating vs 'passive' heating which occurs in a 'natural' setting, such as when exposed to direct sunlight for a period of time, etc... similar to the situation in which honey temperatures change inside the hive.

Bees can fan air to make it cooler and they can cluster around something to make it warmer, but their temperature modification doesn't raise honey temperatures above the temp that affects the state of the honey as mentioned earlier. That high of a temp requires an 'artificial' heat source.

Big Bear

 

[MikeJ]

...goes into a stainless bottling tank...
You can keep your stuff in plastic -- that works. I just dont like it coming into contact with my product...
heat their honey in plastic buckets, but I do not recommend it, as it leeches. Food grade plastics are supposedly ok, but I do not buy it...

Just my opinion but ...
If my information is correct stainless steel also has some amount of leaching.
Unless you keep your stainless steel exposed to air between uses (I.E. not wet or anything) it will still degrade.

Pitting is a good sign something is up - after all if something is leaving your container there will be signs.

Mike

 

[devdog108]

It's amazing how the curve of the earth just sucks right in at Covington<GA so they only get 20 minutes of sun during the longest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Shoot, thats less sun then they get in Nantahala Gorge. Nantahala is Cherokee for "Land of the noon day sun."

Or so I was told by Micky Littlejohn, a Cherokee. But he might have been pulling a fast one on this whiteman.

Longest Day...20 minutes....or is that my life being sucked outta me by idiots here in and around the "ATL" as it is now referred to as........LOLOL. To clarify for SQ.....i leave it in the sun for about 20 minutes....LOLOL....them yanks thought we'uns are sloeuw......LOL

 

[sqkcrk]

Who you callin' a Yank? I'm from Muriland. Besides, I don't think that you are slow, you just move slow. I don't blame you, I can work up a sweat here next to the Canadian Border just walking across the road and into the bee yard. I can't imagine how y'all keep your toupes on down there in Red Clay land.

 

[Grant]

Had a potential cust. ata Fair say that they had heard about eating locally produced honey for allergy benefit, but she didn't want to buy mine because the closest yard of mine to where she lives is maybe 20 miles away. She didn't look like she was suffering from allergies anyway.

I get this same question (about allergic value of the honey) and where my honey was raised. I tell people it's not the miles that count, it's the plant variety.

I have dandelions and clover, and I suspect you do too. Isn't this honey going to be the same in your area as well as mine? Won't my honey give you the same benefit if the flowers are similar in both areas?

And most people have NO IDEA what they are allergic to so the question about where it was raised is somewhat moot. People tend to think honey is the sure-fire answer to undetermined allergies. I remind people that bees don't visit the grass plants (no nectar) so if the potential customer is allergic to grass pollen, the local honey isn't going to help (but I also remind them it won't hurt, and it sure won't hurt to try since they have no idea what's bothering their sinuses).

I also have discovered I can go 100 miles to the north and things don't change very much. If I go 20 miles west or south, yes, plants, soil type, rainfall, nectar flow all vary. You cannot make the determination based solely on miles. Since I sell locally anyway, most of my honey is considered locally grown.



Grant
Jackson, MO

 

[MapMan]

So I guess that most folks here extract it essentially right into bottles, and have the bottles immediately sold and off the premises, and never have to worry about granulation, and therefore never have to heat their honey to liquify it to sell it.

MM