Cloudy extracted honey

[tumuli]

Hi everyone

I extracted my first honey of the year at the weekend. This is the first time I've extracted honey on my own. I didn't extract any that was uncapped and dripped from the frames when they were shook (horizontally up and down with the open cells facing down), but I did extract some uncapped stuff that didn't drip.

Now for the question - this honey was never what I'd call totally clear, but it's already really cloudy (not crystallising from the bottom up, looks more like set honey already). Could it be fermenting, or am I just finding something more to panic over?

[Calum]

Hi, sounds like you did everything right. Cloudy out of the extractor or cloudy in the bucket?
Cloudy in the bucket could just be fine air bubbles from the sieve. Cloudy from the extractor could be a little wood honey with Melecitose (honey would be fairly dark, crystalises in the frames).
ttfn
Calum

[tumuli]

Cloudy in the jars actually (should I have left it longer before bottling?).

There did look to be a lot of air tiny bubbles in it.

It's a very pale colour (mostly Sycamore, gorse and garden forage) - no rape (that I've found anywhere near).

[Jimbo]

Hi tumuli,

You have what we call spring honey which is usually quite pale. If you have Sycamore that is usually the first major spring flow. The next main flow will be July/Aug. Keep a jar in a warm place and the bubbles should rise to the top. When I extract honey I leave it in the bucket with a honey tap in a warm place for a few days then run it off into the jars. If it is fermented the top of the jar look disgusting and sometimes the honey leaks from the lid. If you smell the honey it will also have a yeasty alcohol smell.

Jimbo

[tumuli]

Thanks Jim, but it's definitely not just bubbles - the honey has a "set" texture (even after only 3 days in the jar).

It has been kept in a warm place (though one jar is in the kitchen which is cooler).

It doesn't smell or taste yeasty or alcoholic in any way (though might do by the weekend as some is destined to be Mead :D).

The plot (and the honey) thickens...

[gavin]

Pale, spring and setting rapidly all points to rape. They could fly 3 miles easily, 5 without too much bother and even further if they really wanted to. Try these numbers on Google Maps for your area, might be the explanation.

G.

[tumuli]

Thanks Gavin - I'm usually a little more cautious when I say "there's not rape around here" as I know it's so rarely true to a bee.

So is Rape setting honey not like normal granulation? This would appear to be MUCH finer - smooth almost.

[Calum]

If it was stored in a warm place / sunny it would also go cloudy, but maybe not that quick. Plenty of dandelion in the area? Or was the extracor still a little 'wet'?

[gavin]

Don't think that dandelion granulates smoothly and quickly (but coarsely and slowly), and also both the honey and the wax cappings are distinctly yellow.

Rape often starts to look glassy when in unfinished uncapped cells. It will readily set in the more peripheral and therefore colder spots in the super. It goes glassy then sets hard and white in jars (sometimes pale yellow if there are other things in there). I prefer to let it set in plastic buckets then gently warm, stir to homogenise, and transfer the slightly-liquid but still granulated honey into jars. Then it doesn't set as hard (nor do you get the frosting you may see on the glass) and will remain soft-spread.

I may be wrong about this being rape, but you should expect it if you are in or near arable land in Angus/Aberdeenshire.

[tumuli]

Thanks for the help guys.

Yes there is dandelion around, but this is too pale - almost white. I had wrongly assumed that was Sycamore.

Will try that way of bottling it next year Gavin, this year we'll be having solid honey :o

[Calum]

Hi,
freeze it. That creates much finer christals and makes it easily spreadable.
It is becoming popular over here for various reasons.
ttfn
Calum

[gavin]

If the rape fields are in flower next year and they are working it you should see many busy bees flying to and fro, some with big bright yellow pollen loads, some without. Many will have the yellow face typical of bees on rape. Rather like this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7986679.stm

That first bee doing the waggle dance looks superficially like a bee on rape, but given the rather pale yellow pollen loads and the early spring timing of the news report, I think that it was probably foraging on willow, the other spring plant that gives this pattern.

G.