# Storing capped honey frames?



## Middleton (Mar 11, 2009)

Can I store capped honey frames and not worry about the honey drawing moisture and fermenting? I know I will have to worry about mold and critters. Seems like the wax would keep it sealed from the humidity in the air.


----------



## Peaches (Jun 8, 2011)

Yes, by freezing the honey frames.


----------



## Middleton (Mar 11, 2009)

Why would you have to freeze them?


----------



## Peaches (Jun 8, 2011)

To kill the Small Hive Beetle eggs. Therefore killing the larvae before they could destroy your honey crop. They eat honey and poop in the honey and make a slime-like secretion that will cause the honey to ferment.

Freezing the honey will not let the honey crystallize either. It will remain liquid.


----------



## PeteS (May 1, 2010)

You freeze them to kill any waxmoth eggs. The waxmoths will ruin your frames of honey that the bees worked so hard to make for you.


----------



## Middleton (Mar 11, 2009)

The reason I posted this was I was told honey will still draw moisture even if it was capped. I didn't buy that and guess I was looking for affirmation here. Thanks


----------



## bluegrass (Aug 30, 2006)

If you have a cool, clean and safe place to store it, it can stay indefinitely in the frames capped just like being bottled on a shelf. But freezing it first for a day or so is a good idea.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Middleton said:


> The reason I posted this was I was told honey will still draw moisture even if it was capped.


No, not true. I have, at any one time, 3 or 400 frames of honey in plastic clamshell trays, in big boxes, in my TV room for 9 months or more. No moisture problems.

Why do you want to store frames of honey? Why wouldn't you just leave it on your hives until it is time to extract it? Or are you doing as I do, storing comb honey?


----------



## Peaches (Jun 8, 2011)

Mark,

Do yo have central air and heating? If so, that is the reason your honey doesn't absorb moisture.


----------



## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

What if you store it in a hive body, a board on the top and a board on the bottom; Then shrink wrap around it to keep out the critters, and prevent moisture going in or out?


----------



## Peaches (Jun 8, 2011)

Do you have hive beetles up there in Wisconsin? If you do, then you will have eggs in your honey supers and when they hatch, the beetle larvae will slime your honey and ruin it. Here in Florida, we have about day max to get the honey spun and strained to keep the beetle larvae out of the honey.

Once the honey is strained, then we can store it in an airtight bucket or pail or barrel.


----------



## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

Peaches said:


> Here in Florida, we have about day max to get the honey spun and strained to keep the beetle larvae out of the honey.
> 
> Once the honey is strained, then we can store it in an airtight bucket or pail or barrel.


I am not following this. If the eggs are in the honey already how does one day or 2 or 3 make any difference? How large are the beetle eggs? Do they pass through the strainer or does the strainer crush them?


----------



## Peaches (Jun 8, 2011)

Acebird,

I use a 600 mesh paint strainer. The mesh is small enough to catch the eggs, but big enough to let the pollen through. Once I strain the honey, using gravity only, into a bucket, then the beetle eggs either try to hatch in the strained wax or if I am lucky, they will die when I place the strained wax in the sun and let the bees get all the honey first. The larva of the hive beetle does not eat wax, only honey. If the bees get the honey first, then the hatched larvae dies of starvation, or the heat cooks the eggs/larvae and enough said.


----------



## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

Acebird said:


> I am not following this. If the eggs are in the honey already how does one day or 2 or 3 make any difference


The eggs require a certain humidity in order to hatch. Keeping the honey house below 25% humidity is very important in SHB territory. They can pass through many filters.. depends on what you use I suppose. One the honey is filtered and sealed the moisture in the honey should be too low (<18%) to allow the near microscopic eggs to hatch.

So.. it is best to never let SHB near your comb.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Peaches said:


> Do yo have central air and heating?


No.

And just cause I'm picky, freezing won't stop crystalization, it will slow down the process. Not that there is much difference.


----------



## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

_>"The reason I posted this was I was told honey will still draw moisture even if it was capped."_

_>"No, not true."_ --sqkcrk.

I would agree with that. Honey for winter stores is usually stored at the top of the hive above cluster. We all know how much moisture the bees can produce in the hive during winter; even a well ventilated hive. If the capped honey absorbed moisture over 3-5 months of winter, some of it might ferment. The bees go through a lot of work to reduce the moisture of nectar. If it were to ferment, why bother capping it anyway?

I had two supers kept indoors that I was unable to extract until the following spring; it seemed fine to me.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Right on Oldbee. Capped honey is of low moisture content and then sealed w/ a wax cap by the bees so it will stay at low moisture content. Maybe in high humidity places like Florida this is not as true. But it is here.


----------



## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

Oldbee said:


> _
> I would agree with that. Honey for winter stores is usually stored at the top of the hive above cluster. We all know how much moisture the bees can produce in the hive during winter; even a well ventilated hive. If the capped honey absorbed moisture over 3-5 months of winter, some of it might ferment. The bees go through a lot of work to reduce the moisture of nectar. If it were to ferment, why bother capping it anyway?
> 
> I had two supers kept indoors that I was unable to extract until the following spring; it seemed fine to me._


_

OK.. I am willing to learn something. So honey is not Hygroscopic (absorbs water). Its has been my observation that honey place in a very low humidity room (one with a strong dehumidifier) will loose water to the environment. Or at least it appears that way to me. I have not confirmed this with a refractometer... so maybe I am wrong.

Maybe we are talking about a geographical difference here? Or maybe we are talking about just capped (sealed) honey?_


----------



## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

I may be wrong but beekeepers do this [put honey supers in a room with a dehumidfier] when they need to harvest honey supers where there are too many frames with more than 20%-30% [???] of it still uncapped? The honey is good, but to be on the safe side of the moisture content. Geography may have something to do with it. We don't have high humidity here for too long anyway.


----------



## beedeetee (Nov 27, 2004)

I don't live in a very humid and warm climate, but I can store supers of capped honey over winter and they do just fine. Wax moths don't bother my supers because they have never had brood in them. I always have frames that I don't extract for various reasons like they are only partly drawn, etc. and wax moths have never bothered them. I think that they store just fine. I keep some cut comb supers until spring without any problem either. If you have had brood in your frames, freezing might be a good idea along with sealing them so the moths can lay eggs on them.


----------



## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

When you speak of moisture transfer you must also speak of temperature. Something that may be causing confusion is moisture content vs. relative humidity. Secondly, wax is not hydroscopic. With cool temps in the winter and a wax coating not much moisture is going to transfer either way from the honey.

What I don't understand is why uncapped honey frames crystallize in a refrigerator. If honey crystallizes at 57 deg. I would think 45 deg is far enough away from that point. And a frost free refrigerator is taking the moisture out.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Why do you have uncapped honey in your refrigerator?

Eventually almost all honeys will crystalize, no matter what temperature it is stored at. Unless one stores honey at high enuf temp as to liquify crystals. Which I would not call storing. Cooler or hotter than 57 degrees slows the process. It doesn't stop it.


----------



## beedeetee (Nov 27, 2004)

It crystallizes fastest at 57. It will also crystallize at 90 (much slower, but in my refrigerator warmer you can see it start over a year) or near freezing. At room temperature our honey that is extracted about the first of August will crystallize by the first of November. When I put honey in my freezer (close to 0F) it comes out just like it went in, but will start to crystallize after that.


----------



## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> Why do you have uncapped honey in your refrigerator?


New beek, didn't know any better. Not all the honey came out of the comb when I drip extracted. That is why I made an extractor. At the time I felt the frames could be used as a feed in the spring which I did and I think it helped. It certainly gets the bees using the frames right away as opposed to fresh foundation.

I am still leaning on the fence because I am not 100% sure what to do this year. Maybe I should start a new post and ask?


----------



## geebob (Apr 4, 2011)

Peaches said:


> Do you have hive beetles up there in Wisconsin?


Fortunately our recent, wickedly cold Winters have kept us SHB free. I talked to a migratory beekeeper who was battling them and I don't envy him for that.

We do have wax moths though, which has me hunting for freezers on Craigslist.


----------



## KYBEEs (Aug 9, 2014)

Oldbee said:


> _>"The reason I posted this was I was told honey will still draw moisture even if it was capped."_
> 
> _>"No, not true."_ --sqkcrk.
> 
> ...


I had a similar experience. I stored honey for several weeks before extracting with no problems. I don't understand why these eggs would immediately hatch and ruin honey if not in the hive and in the hive they last all winter.


----------



## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

KYBEEs said:


> I had a similar experience. I stored honey for several weeks before extracting with no problems. I don't understand why these eggs woudl immediatly hatch and ruin honey if not in the hive and in the hive they last all winter.


Humidity... below 25% they do not hatch.


----------



## KYBEEs (Aug 9, 2014)

hpm08161947 said:


> Humidity... below 25% they do not hatch.


That's really interesting. So do bees keep humidity low in the summer time too? I can understand keeping the temperature low by air movement but I wouldn't have thought that would affect humidity. I go back and forth between being amazed by bees and wanting to sell everything and be done with them. I'm in an amazed sort of mood now.


----------



## KYBEEs (Aug 9, 2014)

geebob said:


> Fortunately our recent, wickedly cold Winters have kept us SHB free. I talked to a migratory beekeeper who was battling them and I don't envy him for that.
> 
> We do have wax moths though, which has me hunting for freezers on Craigslist.


So should I keep all of my frames and supers in a freezer? Does the freezer need to be one? What if some boxes already have some moths in them?


----------



## hpm08161947 (May 16, 2009)

KYBEEs said:


> That's really interesting. So do bees keep humidity low in the summer time too?


I don't know. I just know that in this land of high humidity if you do not keep the dehumidifier going full blast in the honey house you will wind up with a mess....


----------



## Lady Devana (Oct 5, 2016)

Greetings!

I have 6 frames of honey I was unable to spin that are 2 years old. They have been stored in a cool place in a plastic bin with a tight lid. The honey seems to be a bit darker but has a good taste. I would like to spin this honey and give as gifts. Would the honey still be safe for human consumption?


----------



## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

Lady Devana said:


> Greetings!
> 
> I have 6 frames of honey I was unable to spin that are 2 years old. They have been stored in a cool place in a plastic bin with a tight lid. The honey seems to be a bit darker but has a good taste. I would like to spin this honey and give as gifts. Would the honey still be safe for human consumption?


Yes.


----------

