# black specks in honey



## jdesq (Jul 27, 2009)

Normally I extract in September, this year my hives are so full I extracted a couple of 100 lbs. yesterday. The honey is a nice light yellow, tastes great, but has little black specks floating in it. I've never seen that before, any idea what this might be?


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## ralittlefield (Apr 25, 2011)

Are you sure you really want to know?


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

Ash from the smoker? Any mildew on any of the frames?

Ed


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## jdesq (Jul 27, 2009)

Intheswamp said:


> Ash from the smoker? Any mildew on any of the frames?
> 
> Ed


No mildew, I used a fume board to move the bees from honey super.


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

Did you use a smoker to work/inspect your bees during the season prior to pulling your honey?

Ed


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## jdesq (Jul 27, 2009)

Sure, just like every other year for the last 10 or so.


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## Intheswamp (Jul 5, 2011)

Ok, just trying to help...


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

Did you strain and these specks are small enouth to get through screening? Perhaps a finer screen might help?

Wayne


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## reneal (Sep 6, 2006)

Well, I had a problem with black specks in my honey once, but it was my own stupidity. I had a couple old supers with damaged comb, some of which was black & I put them on top of the hive to get cleaned out. Instead of putting them directly above the brood chamber, I put them on top of a partly filled honey super. Some of the junk the bees cleaned out fell into the lower super and got capped with the honey & I never realized I had a problem till after extraction.


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## Cedar Hill (Jan 27, 2009)

First guess, is wax moth detritus, second guess is rust particles from your extractor (time for Camcote?), vibrating uncapping knife, cappings scratcher etc.? Maybe you could strain it again through some new fine nylon... OMTCW


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