Reliquefying honey in buckets- simple way?

Couple of things, if you paint the buckets black it will help in the sun and if you go the hot water way make sure you seal the buckets due to the honey being hygroscopic. But as the contents heat, including the air inside, pressure may need to be released otherwise the top may pop.
I’m all out of crystallised honey now and I’ve gotta say I miss it!

Candied honey is great, you get more on your toast :sunglasses: But there is a limit.

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I got an aluminium tank made that holds 2x20 liter buckets. The height is 160mm. The tank sits on two bits of wood to take the weight & a single electric hotplate sits under the middle. Two boards keep the buckets off the bottom of the tank & the tank is then filled with hot water. I use a cooking thermometer. I adjust the setting on the hotplate so that the water temp doesn’t exceed 125degF. That works really well for me.

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yep- I prefer using candied honey at home myself- and I have plenty- But I need to liquefy the rest to get into into tubs and onto market. the buckets are in the sun today!

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Hey R-sky
We’ve been of grid fur 20 years and never deal with the shops anymore. They’ll tell you anything as they either don’t have a clue or are on the grid.

They can only fix problems by selling something else in hopes it’ll fix it.

Find other people that are of the grid and learn from them

Our lead acid batteries are 20 years old and still going good. Throw caustic soda down them once a year to clean the plates and never use them for heating elements.

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Sounds like a lot of you use solar…by any chance, do any of you know what the kilowatt hour charge from your electrical provider is in your area? I pay 6.5cents and from research I’ve done Germany pays about 40 cents…just curious.

Wow, thats an excellent rate… here in Australia it is costing me 31.6c per Kw/hr and a daily service charge of 94.5c and this is supposed to be a good deal.

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37 cents per KWh in San Diego, courtesy of SDGE. We have solar panels and generate slightly more than we use, and we run 2 electric cars. However, we do not get re-imbursed at 37 cents - only 18 cents and then they add transmission and other charges… :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Just found this chart! Think it may be from 2011.

how_much_does_elec_cost-08|467x500

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try this method for bottling honey, very clean and quick . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6VnEnKLcRA&t=53s

that’s an OK way to process honey- but not to deal with candied honey. It will also work better with a press as using a simple strainer will take forever to get the last of the honey out of the wax.

Hi Jack this other video showed up after watching the first one. One good thing came out of it was the electric steamer. Not that I’m rushing out to buy one.


cheers
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Ha ha. I like that guys video- he’s a beekeeper after my own heart- and I use the hot car trick to warm honey as well. Works a treat.

yes- years back a lady at our bee club demonstrated one of them. SHE LOVED IT. She said one of the best things was it reduced cappings to a fraction- meaning less processing and work. Also goes right into depressions on the frame where the knife can’t easily reach. She also felt the bees rebuilt the frames more easily with less damage to the comb.

From memory though they cost like $400? EEEK!

I might consider one down the road- if I continue to have larger harvests. As soon as we get a break in the heat here I will be going into many hives and taking out much honey- this season continues to be good despite the heat. Touching wood now.

Having watched your extraction videos- I am keenly aware you are a master with the hot knife. I mean you can spin 6 tonnes with a two frame hand spinner that’s 30 years old or more- I have seen people with one hive and a brand new 4 frame electric spinner! So yes-it doesn’t surprise me you are in nu rush to grab one :wink:

Hi Jack, it’s the electric steam generator that I’m not in a rush to go out & buy.

I’m not a fan of the paw idea. The steam knife brings everything back to square, which I like. I clean the bur comb off the top & bottom bars at the same time as well. The cappings wax actually fetches a premium price these days. I use a fork to scrape any caps the steam knife can’t reach.

The other day a bloke who I helped get started came around while I was extracting honey. This bloke started off with a 9 frame electric spinner. He couldn’t see the point in using a 2 frame hand spinner.

Anyway while I was spinning frames, he said this is pretty quick, it takes a few minutes just to do one side with the electric spinner. He said I reckon you’d be just as fast with this 2 frame spinner if you only had a few hives to do. He was a bit surprised, especially when I pulled out some beautiful fully drawn combs ready to go into the brood. There was no damage on them at all.

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Thanks all for your contributions to this thread. We have been advised by a customer that caustic soda corroded their Flow Frames cables. While it is each beekeeper’s perogative to experiment with different methods, please be aware that our recommendation is to use only hot-ish water to clean your Flow Frames - please see this page of our FAQs for more information on cleaning your frames https://support.honeyflow.com/do-i-need-to-clean-the-flow-frames/

NOTE: In the case of a reportable disease, please follow the instructions of your local DPI (Department of Primary Industries)