Hey, most honey bottling containers have a wide mouth gate. Since I only have a small volume of honey to bottle, will a tap like this be usable, or will the flow be just a trickle?
Hi @BooBees. I hope there are beekeepers on this forum who remember school physics lessons better than me and may correct the following train of thoughts
Flow rate is inversely proportional to the viscosity of liquid.
Wikipedia says that viscosity of water at 20°C - 1.0016 mPa·s, honey - 2000-10000.
Based on this data you may conduct an experiment. Fill a glass of water through this tap and measure time it takes to fill it. Multiply time by 2000-10000. Compare results with your life expectancy
Honey gate price on ebay is about 5 dollars.
Cool. Honey gate it is!
Harvest straight into jars then no need. Push the flow key in to the top channel and open in stages and the flow is perfect especially if your frames are fully capped.
Check out the flow YouTube channel Cedar does some cool videos showing how to harvest your Flow Frames, the Facebook page also has videos to help.
Plus it’s cool for cats when you start stacking the jars and all of a sudden you’ve the same qty as your local store
That tap is fine for a thin liquid like water but too much time lost in filling tubs of honey using it. I would spend the bit of extra money and buy a honey gate, you can find them on EBay or you local bee equipment shop.
Cheers
No, actually I’m going to skip the middleman and do just like @HappyHibee and harvest straight into jars. That was our original plan anyway.
Ok, that is another way to do it but I always filter my honey to remove any impurities as I sell my honey and it needs to be clear and clean.
Cheers
Okay, I can always use a small strainer I guess, but I thought it wasn’t really necessary to filter honey out of a flow hive. Honey is mainly for us and friends.
I’ve never filtered my Flow honey but then I don’t go straight into a jar nor would I recommend it. One of my selling points that customers like is that it isn’t filtered only settled in the holding buckets. There are no clarity issues just crystallization.
You will need to seal those jars Boo, in my area, at this time of season, the bees are searching for food and if I leave any honey out the bees are onto it in a flash. The other day I left the shed door open and it was invaded, so much so i thought it was a swarm.
@skeggley lets his honey settle and skims off the bits of wax etc that floats to the top, I’m short on time available and using a filter works best for me. Both ways the honey is cleaner than as it comes from the frame.
But as with most in bee keeping do what feels right for you and I’m sure your friends will enjoy the honey…
Hi Skeggley, why you do not recommend it? I think all the videos on the Flow website show someone harvesting straight into jars.
When you let it settle, do you find a lot of impurities in the bottom? Would they be just wax cappings?
Thank you again for the help.
True, but it is alway good to know what others do and why.
As previously explained wax capping floats to the top of the honey left to settle but dead ants, wax moth and any other insects can be anywhere in the honey. Here on the East coast SHB are often found in the filter. That is why I filter my honey and why @skeggley lets it settle and skims off the rubbish from the top of the honey.
It is about doing what suits you but I am sure my honey sales would drop if my customers spread honey on their toast and found ants in it for example.
Sorry. I replied to skeggley before I read your post.
Here’s my bucket set up, 5L 2 frames, 6 kilos.
Here’s my last harvest, no filtering.
And my pouring bucket, 10L. 12kg.
I like to keep the months separate hence the small buckets, flavours and aroma varies month by month.
Yes there is some wax on top and I usually keep the last 1 or 2 kgs for personal or gifting.
Having an open top when harvesting at this time of year will catch bees. Some put glad wrap over the jars to keep the bees out.
Hope this helps.
A lot.
Thank you very much.
100% straight from the hive, unfiltered natural raw honey is a USP.
The honey that I do give as gifts or sell at work never hangs around.
I grew up eating crystallised honey from Poland so even if it does I love the texture and look.
Personal preference BooBees that’s all it is really.