Hi Dawn, a few years ago I started robbing my traditional hives (which is all I use) first thing in the morning before breakfast. My reason being that no fresh really unripe honey should be in the uncapped cells on account that the bees have had all night to reduce the water content of such honey. If a downward shake reveals unripe honey coming out, I wont take that frame.
Sometimes I’ll take frames that are only 1/2 capped if they pass the shakedown test. That mainly depends on whether I need honey for customers or not. Also how much humidity is in the air.
I don’t think so, @Eva. As you know, honey is hygroscopic (likes to absorb water). Most climates have a humidity of 40-60%. Ripe honey is <18%. So if you expose honey to an atmosphere with a higher water content than the honey, I think it would absorb more water.
There are stories that you can dry out honey by running a fan over it in an air-conditioned home. However, in the height of summer, when our A/C is running, the humidity can be 20% or less.
I don’t know. It is a complicated question, and viscosity is a very tricky thing! Just typical of bees really to leave us all scratching our heads, even after many years of beekeeping!
