[Sarepta bees]

I built myself an extractor, extracted some honey , worked really well other than it is under horsepowered and blew a fuse ( 4 racks of honey are heavier than i thought ) I have only strained so far through large screen and into a clean ice chest, how big of a hurry do I have to be in before I filter it again and bottle? I don't think honey "goes bad" but wanted to ask before I lost it, Thanks, Mike

 

[honeydreams]

Sorry to hear about your extractor problems, after I spin and strain my Honey I wait 24 hours till I bottle it. Honey does asorb humity so I would bottle as soon after the 24 hours.

 

[NasalSponge]

If you are going to filter it again do that now...transfer it to a bottling tank and after that like dreams said let it settle for 24 hours to allow the bubbles and scum to float to the top. If your bottling tank (can be a plastic bucket) has a lid use it to keep moisture out. Hope that helps. It is best (if possible) to keep the transfer of honey from one container to another to a minimum because of the honey lost with each transfer. I go from my extractor directly into my bottling tank via a strainer, that way there is only one transfer before the bottles.

 

[Sarepta bees]

What will happen if it absorbs moisture? Can I tell if mine has already done that? It has been in a clean, sealed ice chest for a couple of days.

 

[duck_nutt]

if the chest is sealed, it'll be ok for a few days...but make sure it stays closed...I had some in a 5 gal bucket for about a week(sealed of course) and it did fine....

there's a pecentage of moisture that's acceptable for honey 18% or less i think...you have to have a instument to check it...if the honey was capped when you extracted, I feel like you'll be fine....if it was uncapped, you might need to find out the moisture content before bottling...

 

[Beeslave]

I hope you don't plan on bottling with the little drain on the bottom of the ice chest. You will be there a while.

 

[mike haney]

i do all my straining/filtering in one pass out of the extractor or the crush and drain sieve by "stacking" my filters, coarse on top and progressively finer on below. then all you have is some foam in the bucket. i would not use an ice chest as they would be hard to drain. better is 5 gallon bucket(s). good luck,mike