# honey is too wet- how long will it last before fermenting? what should we do with it?



## MiddleofMae (Mar 1, 2012)

So my husband and I just extracted 40 lbs of honey last night - our second harvest this year. The problem is, it's been such a humid, rainy season, the moisture level hardly went down after 2 weeks of placing a dehumidifier in a small room with the mostly capped frames. The dehumidifier isn't ours- we're borrowing it (and now need to return it), and since I had to rent the extractor from the local bee club, we were on a time crunch.

Now we have 40 lbs of runny honey. It's hovering around 20% moisture. What should we do? Would you sell honey this wet? (maybe at a discount with a disclaimer?). Would you just give it away to friends/family and tell them to use it up in the next few months? Find some homebrewers to buy it as is for mead?


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Generally, if you run a dehumidifier in a small space, you would also run a heater within that same space. The dehumidifier will be more effective at higher temperatures.

One option is to freeze the honey until you can arrange to get a dehumidifier + heater for another try.


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## Tom Brueggen (Aug 10, 2011)

If it was called it should be ripe. At least that's my understanding. I tend to shy away from extracting any uncapped honey unless its just a small portion on a frame of mostly capped honey. 

I've also seen a trick of shaking the hive on it's side over a clean surface. As long as honey doesn't fall out then it's OK. I'll usually do this with frames that have some uncapped honey. But in general, the bees shouldn't cap it unless it's ripe. I've noticed variances in how thick some honey seems vs others when I extract. 

The only "problem" I've run into so far was having old honey crystallize faster. It was from a hive that was 2-3 years old and had never seen an extraction. The bottled honey crystallized in just weeks of being extracted. But I've never had runny honey problems.


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## Riskybizz (Mar 12, 2010)

Now why would you want to sell or share honey that has or will in all likelihood ferment? That is surely something that they wouldn't soon forget.


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## MiddleofMae (Mar 1, 2012)

Good point, Risky.... would hate to leave a bad memory of beekeepers for people.

As of now I am taking others' advice and trying to dehumidify it more in the buckets, while I still have the dehumidifier for a day or two. We'll see how far it goes.


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## Riskybizz (Mar 12, 2010)

In my area we actually have a different issue. My honey is very thick and hard to extract at times. I need to make sure when its pulled its extracted and doesn't sit around for a week or so. Our normal summer humidity level is 10% or less and the bees are in no hurry to cap honey. I have had hives leave it uncapped as they gather another box on top. Its ripe though, so as soon as they begin to cap some frames I'm ok to pull it. They will gather and store as long as they have the open cells and then when the flow lightens up they tend to the capping. The extremely low moisture levels tend to help them out with their distilling process.


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## WVMJ (Apr 2, 2012)

Absolutely find some mead makers!  WVMJ


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