# Honey recycling



## Dekker Naude (Feb 1, 2010)

Hi everybody.

I bought 100tons of honey at a low price but it contains a lot of pollen and impurities.

I want to feed it back to my bees and extract it with proper equipment.

My plan is to make a feeding station of 400hives.

What will be the best way to feed it to the bees, open feeding station or inside feeding?
What loss percentage can I expect?
Should I dilute the honey with water 1:1 or 2:1?
How much honey will 1 hive process a day?

I would appreciate any advice and comments!

Thank you
Dekker


----------



## dennis crutchfield (Aug 5, 2016)

if you are willing to risk the loss of your bee's with some one else's honey. I would feed it with a inside feeder so as not to feed the yellow jackets and other bees.


----------



## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

You are going to have to warm the honey and stir in enough water to make it thin enough to take out of an inside feeder. Perhaps 10 to 15%? Some sort of mechanical agitation is going to make the job much easier as water really wants to float atop honey. Also, be sure to feed the thinned honey immediately as fermentation will begin as soon as its thinned.


----------



## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

You plan on feeding 100 tons of honey to 400 colonies? That's 500lb. each?? 14 or 15 supers. Pretty ambitious. Why don't you filter it?


----------



## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Open feeding for that kind of volume. Do it right after the main honeyflow, whne the colonies are at their strongest, but there is a dearth. They will take a gallon a day easily once they have figured it out. Figuring it out takes 2 days, 3 at most. Set out 30-40 drums to get a large surface area and half fill the drums. Refill as needed, likely every other day.

MP has a good idea.


Jean-Marc


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

100t of honey, ... are you kidding me...?!? Lol
Is it fermented? 
Is it cheap off shore foreign?


----------



## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

And watch the bees drown! 

Ian Look where the OP is from!


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Oh South Africa, could be legit. Gathered honey from area producers, ... or, lol
Bees would be cheaper than blending and filtering equipment 
If it's dirty enough that filtering will not clean it up, reprocessing it through the hives would be his only option, unless its fermented...


----------



## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Without getting into the who/where/why specifics of this case, I only recall doing something like this one time with a half barrel or so of honey that had spilled on the floor. Used it up in the fall by adding water, stirring the heck out of it then putting it into a couple of other barrels with floats so there was some more surface area. Left it in a bee yard in the back of a truck and the next day they were all bone dry. 
BTW MP's suggestion begs an answer. If it's legit honey and just a little dirty then why not just set up a filtering operation to clean it up, not sure what you gain with all the extra work entailed in cycling it through a bunch of hives.


----------



## Dekker Naude (Feb 1, 2010)

Yes I'm from South Africa,

We buy honey from al the small beekeeper with traditional log hives.

Nothing wrong with the quality of the honey, they squees the combs out by hand, so all the pollen and wax mix with the honey. And the market wants clear honey that is almost see thru.

We work only with the killer bees, and can produce honey 365 days of the year as we dont get winter like you guys.

Thank you for all the suggestions!

I will start experiment on a small scale before I move 400-1000 hives to the feeding station.
At the moment my bees are busy on sunflowers fields!

Regards
Dekker


----------



## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

If in fact you have honeyflow 365 days a year, bees will not open feed well. Then go to plan b, settle the honey out in large tanks, then filter it. You will still end up with 93-94 tons of clean honey. That will be more than feeding back to bees and a lot less work.

Jean-Marc


----------



## D Coates (Jan 6, 2006)

jim lyon said:


> I only recall doing something like this one time with a half barrel or so of honey that had spilled on the floor. Used it up in the fall by adding water, stirring the heck out of it then putting it into a couple of other barrels with floats so there was some more surface area. Left it in a bee yard in the back of a truck and the next day they were all bone dry.


Yep, I did exactly that and it worked like a charm but it was 10-15lbs. Not 100 tons....


----------



## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

I believe we all have probably feed back poor managed honey at some time or another. I feed back honey from cut outs that I may have scraped off the ceiling with who knows what in it. 
Dekker Naude if this is something you plan to be in for the long haul. A quality filtering system may pay you big dividends in terms of time, and energy. Although a settling tank. pump and filter system may be a large investment feeding back honey can cost you product as if you open feed you will not be able to ensure that all the bees using the feed station will be yours! IMHO


----------

