# Filtering honey



## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

Yes, you can do cheese cloth and that works pretty good. They sell a fabric honey filter at some of the bee supply houses that works real good. You may just want to leave the sediment if it's as fine as you say. When I bottle, I run the raw honey through two metal filters....coarse and fine. That's it. I then let it settle for a few days...maybe even longer...in a warm area. The very fine sediment settles on the bottom of the buckets just below the valve and it stays there while I bottle. The final jar or two that I have to scoop out is reserved for us. No sediment in the other bottles.


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## SwedeBee1970 (Oct 26, 2008)

Thanks for the tips. Does the grocery stores sell cheese cloth ? Wait a minute, got another kooky idea. What about a coffee filter ? Will that work ?


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

> What about a coffee filter ? Will that work ?


no


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## SwedeBee1970 (Oct 26, 2008)

Where to get the cheese cloth filter (locally) other than the BeeKeeping stores ?


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## DeeAnna (Nov 5, 2010)

Cheesecloth is often sold in fabric, craft, kitchen, and hardware stores. Possibly Walmart in the craft/fabric section. In fabric stores, it may be sold by the yard. In the other places, it usually comes precut and sealed in a plastic bag. Wash it before use, or at least rinse it out by hand.


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## SwedeBee1970 (Oct 26, 2008)

Wal-Mart it is !!! A hunting, I will go.........The Three Stooges..........da da da, da da da.... Uh hem.....I won't quit my day job....


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## John C (Sep 19, 2010)

SwedeBee1970 said:


> What about a coffee filter ? Will that work ?


Depends on the coffee filter. I would think that a paper filter would not work. But there are also filters made of metal and plastic. I had a plastic one handy and since I only had a small amount of honey to filter - about 10 lbs - that worked fine for me.


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

Ravenseye has the best idea (I think) and that is the way I do it sell the best and eat the rest.



> I then let it settle for a few days...maybe even longer...in a warm area. The very fine sediment settles on the bottom of the buckets just below the valve and it stays there while I bottle. The final jar or two that I have to scoop out is reserved for us. No sediment in the other bottles.


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## DeeAnna (Nov 5, 2010)

For the engineer-types listening in:

Filtration depends on the pore size of the filter, the viscosity of the fluid, the pressure at which the fluid is being pushed through the filter, the time allowed for filtration to occur, and the size and type of solids in the fluid to be filtered.

The finer the filtration media (cheesecloth = coarse, paper coffee filter = fine), the longer the time the filtration will take, all other things being equal. If the filter is too fine, the honey may filter verrrrry slowly or not filter at all under typical home conditions.

If you want to try the paper coffee filter, however, then go for it -- what do you have to lose? But I'd do a small test batch first and see if it works.

Settling depends on viscosity of the fluid, the size and type of particles to be settled out, the lack of agitation in the fluid, and time. 

If you have the time, settling will by far be the easiest method and can give very good results. The only exception is if you are trying to remove colloidal solids (think: egg whites), which tend to not settle easily, but I don't think colloidal particles are much of an issue with honey. Settling doesn't introduce air into the honey, as can happen when filtering.

--DeeAnna


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

If you are using the same kind of bucket filter that I have, I don't see how you could still be getting a sediment in the honey! I got my filter from a bee supply house and it is so fine that I didn't even think the honey would flow through it at all, but it went through fairly quickly and the honey was clean as can be. Maybe your bucket filter has larger holes than mine. John


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

New pantyhose work well to.....paper coffee filter...no. I run mine thru a nylon filter you get from the bee supply shops but have been considering just using the double strainer and see how it goes since I don't heat mine. Selling honey with a bit of sediment in it seem to be gaining popularity with the all natural folks.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Thanks DeeAnna, I was going to say that one doesn't FILTER honey thru cheese cloth or any of the other devices mentioned. That is STRAINING. There is a difference. A point of bee jargon that bugs me when used differently than I understand the meaning of those words to be.

Thanks.


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

Now Mark, I know folks that consider using a nylon strainer as "filtering" honey even though it is just straining it, claiming it is removing pollen and other beneficial stuff. Personally I just want the legs out So it goes in this world of stinging bugs, SO many opinions.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I know. It's just one of my pet peeves and people shouldn't take me too seriously. I have a problem w/ people who usew the word "is" when thery should use "are" and when I see folks on beesource who don't use the correct "there", "they're" or "their". But that's just me being picky, I guess. No biggie.


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## Brent Bean (Jun 30, 2005)

Isn’t, the word “use” spelled without the w? I really don’t see what are the problem? I still know what you is talking about.


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## DeeAnna (Nov 5, 2010)

Filtering and straining describe the same process -- the removal of solid particles from a liquid.

Yes, "strain" is used to mean the process of removing "large" solids, while "filter" means to remove the "small" solids. But, honestly, these words are far too imprecise to spend any time worrying about which one is "right".

It's plenty good enough in this context to know cheesecloth is a coarser "filter" than a paint/honey strainer. And a paint/honey strainer is a coarser "filter" than a coffee filter. If filtering (or straining) with a cheesecloth doesn't clean up your honey to suit your needs, then filter (or strain) with a finer media to achieve the results you want. 

Bottom line -- I think everyone is getting the point just fine, regardless of the word used.

--DeeAnna


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

Thank you DeeAnna.


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

I've tried coffee filters before and they work, but real slow. I don't think it's necessary to get the honey that clean and in fact, I wonder if you're also removing some of the good stuff. 

You can get cheese cloth at the hardware store or at the grocery store. Craft stores too. 

Mark, I agree. It's more straining than filtering. I suppose there's a point where enough cheese cloth makes for a filter!


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## clgs (Aug 6, 2008)

Knee high nylons work great and are cheap, you can get the bulk economical packages of about 10 pairs in the grocery store. For small lots - several pounds - I stretch a cut ( I take about half of the calf section off and use the toe/ankle sections) knee high over a quart plastic food container (like the large containers you get deli salads in) and slowly pour in the raw extracted or crushed honey. Once the nylon gets too clogged with wax and solids, I tie it closed and hold it in a plastic quart food container with the snap lid and it drips out the remaining honey overnight. You actually can hang about 4 knee highs in one quart container to drain.


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## HONEYDEW (Mar 9, 2007)

First off I hope that you didn't use ANY chemicals on your bees, if you did thats up to you, but please don't give this honey to friends and family unless you don't consider them good friends and family...


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## John C (Sep 19, 2010)

Are nylons ok to use as a filter for something that going to be consumed? Aren't there dyes used on them?


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

John C said:


> Are nylons ok to use as a filter for something that going to be consumed? Aren't there dyes used on them?


I hope so, I have been doing it for 30+ years. Haven't heard of any death or sickness from my honey.


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## John C (Sep 19, 2010)

odfrank said:


> I hope so, I have been doing it for 30+ years. Haven't heard of any death or sickness from my honey.



I hope so, too.


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## TWall (May 19, 2010)

Assuming they are still there, I bet Whitmore's Ace has cheese cloth.

It has been a long time since I've been to Wilmington.

Tom


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## HVH (Feb 20, 2008)

I read all the posts here and either missed any mention of temperature or it was absent. In my neck of the woods (high desert) honey is extremely viscous. Our bee club watches bee videos some times and we just laugh when we see others around the country extracting or bottling because it looks like they are working with water. In our area we are pretty much stuck with using a little extra heat to get honey to flow. It can be the difference between honey standing on top of a yard of nylon v.s making its way into the tank. I've been using 128 count nylon from Dadant and have discovered so many uses for it that I will always keep some around. But even more important is the use of settling prior to straining. Honey that comes out of an extractor will strain much more efficiently if pre-settled. If using buckets, one can let settle and skim wax and such from the top before straining, or rig the buckets with gate valves and take advantage of the clean honey from the bottom of the bucket. 
As for me - never going back to buckets. Once you start using a clarifier and a pump there is no going back. 
Some might like the sound of honey in the rough but just about any impurities, including dust, minerals and such can act as seeds for crystallization. If you sell honey, crystallization can cause headaches.


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## Zulu (Jan 1, 2011)

One place that will have what you need and in most cases in your town... paint strainers. Come in gallon and 5 gallon size for under a buck each

I am a new beek , but long time home brewer and we use these all the time

If you need finer straining just dble up two bags 

Sherwin Williams and even some Lowes and Home Depots have them. Inert Nylon bags.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Paint strainers clog up quickly w/ pollen and fine wax particles.

Do any of you guys wet your straining cloth before trying to run honey thru it? Cloth, not nylon stockings.


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## Scrapfe (Jul 25, 2008)

sqkcrk said:


> ... one doesn't FILTER honey thru cheese cloth or any of the other devices mentioned. That is STRAINING...


I hope I can help confuse y’all more. In the bottom end of most 4-cycle internal combustion engines there is a small mesh, metal screen that strains the engine oil before the engine oil is pumped through the oil filter under pressure. 

Strainers work at atmospheric pressures, or are powered by gravity and strainers tend to be infinitely reusable, filters, well not so much.


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## fish_stix (May 17, 2009)

SwedeBee; the bucket filters make a lot of tiny air bubbles in the honey and that may be the "particles" you're seeing. Let the honey settle for a couple days and see what it looks like.


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