Honey storage tips

Equipment
1

Hi there,

I have some question around honey storage and I’m hoping the more experienced beekeepers can share some wisdom.

Should I use Stainless or Plastic storage tanks? what are the cons and pros?
How do I keep the honey nice and warm and not let it crystalize now that winter is coming?

any advice is appreciated and thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Ed

2

Here are some thoughts for you:

  1. Plastic or stainless is fine. I prefer food-grade plastic because it is lighter and the range of sizes is greater.
  2. Do not try to keep your honey warm. That will most likely just degrade it.
  3. My greatest preference is to “aliquot” the honey into standard jars ASAP after harvesting. If I want to store it for months or a year in liquid form, I actually freeze it. Believe it or not, that is the most effective way to prevent crystallization. Just look on Wikipedia if you don’t believe me. :smile: I have some that is 2 years old and still liquid in the freezer. The honey on the shelf is solid with crystals, so it does work.
  4. If you go for big tanks, you will need a warming belt or cabinet. There are several ideas on this forum for how to make a cabinet with a cardboard box and an incandescent bulb and a thermostat. Just use the search feature at the top right of the page. :wink:

Please ask if this doesn’t give you enough ideas. :blush:

1 Like
3

What Dawn says…:rofl: I use plastic food safe buckets, the large variety (25kg) and keep all my honey in a cool place away from direct sunlight. It does crystallise over time so I use a thermostat controlled warming box using incandescent globes set to 40C to bring it back to liquid again before bottling. Works a treat for me.

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4

Thank you this gives me plenty of information to start building my own warming box.

5

how long does it take for a bucket of crystalised honey to bring it back to liquid?

6

quite a while- maye 24-36 hours in a warming cabinet. You want to gently warm it and only to around 40c. Many beekeepers repurpose an old fridge as a honey storage cabinet that can be warmed up using light globes- you can get a thermostat swith for the globe off ebay easily enough.

We use a food dehydrator which is large enough that you can put a 15kg bucket in it. From memory I think it takes around a day to de-candy the honey.

1 Like
7

I use a pet dog bedding warmer, it is a small electric blanket that is equivalent to a 20Watt globe, it warms the honey slowly which is good and the time taken to return the honey back to a liquid can vary considerably depend on the amount of honey and ambient temperature. Work on 24 to 48 hours. I bought mine thru EBay. Hope that helps, cheers