# How do I remove moisture from supers?



## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

I pulled 18 fully capped supers on Sat. It was 95 degrees and very humid and has been humid.

The problem is the moisture content in the supers ranged from 19.5% to 22% even though fully capped.

The temp in my extracting room has ranged from 88 to 100.2 degrees. It is forecast to be 99 deg today and tomorrow. I have 3 fans blowing on the supers. They have been in there for about 36 hrs as of now. A dehumidifier is running in the 200sq ft sealed room. The humidity is around 35% in the room at the moment. What is the optimal temp? Is there anything more I can do? Also how long can I expect it to take to dry these supers out? They have been in there for about 36 hrs as of now.

Thanks for the insight.


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## SweetBettyBees (Jun 19, 2006)

Have you checked your refractometer? Any dryer in there and you could be running a sauna. Seriously, (and some of us could learn something here), how often do bees cap honey when it's this wet?


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## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

I have recalibrated the refractometer just to be sure. It seems to be working just fine.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

I can't really give you much guidance, but one thought that occurs to me is that if its capped at 19.5-22% then it may take a long time to dry it out. Wax is not very permeable. I've had great success at drying out uncapped honey. In fact, just unconditioned air for 24 hours dropped it about 1.5-2.0%. The fact that yours is all capped may be a problem, again, no direct experience. 

How many boxes are we talking about? What if you uncapped a box or two and left it overnight in your conditioned room? I know this may be messy, but it might help, and of course if you've got 50 boxes then its probably not an option.

Good luck


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## Dan Williamson (Apr 6, 2004)

I had 17 boxes in the extracting room. They sat for 72 hrs capped. I tested last night and they read approx 19%. I decided to extract. The room was 105 degrees with 30% humidity. I figured with the dry air and heat that the honey would loose moisture as I extracted. 

I finished up last night around 10pm and went to bed. I got up this morning and tested the honey before I left for work and it tested 18-18.5%.

Good enough for me. 

Fyi.... don't keep a comb honey super in a room that's 105 degrees. Not that I would know..... just that I've heard its not a good idea.


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