Candied honey is a natural process in which honey from a liquid state turns into a thick form, crystallization does not affect the quality and its medicinal properties. The candiedness of honey is one of the indicators that it was collected at the right time, but once melted honey will be candied again, it's just a matter of time.
Unripe honey contains less glucose and more water, so the sugaring process in it is slower. But there will be more moisture, so honey can begin to ferment and quickly oxidize. Honey consists of the smallest crystals, the closer they are located to each other and the greater their number, the higher the degree of crystallization of honey.
Old honey can be divided into several types according to its properties: coarse-grained (crystals 0.5 mm or more), fat-like (crystals are not visible to the eye) and fine-grained (crystals less than 0.5 mm or less). Precipitation and crystallization of honey have different intensity at different temperatures. For example, honey begins to thicken faster at an ambient temperature of ≈14 degrees. Thus, at room temperature of 24-28 degrees, it practically does not sugar. If the storage temperature is 10-12 degrees higher than room temperature, then honey will have a very low degree of crystallization.
If you melt candied frozen honey, its color will become darker. The process of changing the optical properties also occurs in the opposite direction, freshly collected young honey will become lighter as it is sugared. There is an erroneous opinion: if you stir honey regularly, you can prolong its liquid consistency. In practice, this leads to additional grinding of glucose crystals, which, separating in the structure of the substance, accelerate the process of honey crystallization.
The question arises, how to melt frozen honey without losing its beneficial properties? It is necessary to choose the most gentle way in which the risk of losing important elements is reduced to zero. The optimum temperature when heated is up to 40 degrees. When melting honey, use the golden rule: set aside from the container in which the old honey was candied the amount that you need for a single use. A smaller volume is much easier and faster to melt than a whole jar. Thus, you will not only save your time, but also save the remaining last year's honey intact.
melt honey in the sun
Sunlight also affects the consistency of this product, so if possible it is best to store it in a dark place that is not accessible to sunlight. When exposed to direct sunlight on a jar of honey, it can heat up to 50 degrees and above. Under the action of the sun, the consistency becomes liquid, but it is worth noting that the transition from a solid state to a liquid takes quite a long time, so this method is one of the slowest.
Melt cured honey quickly with hot water
If you live in a city apartment, you can easily melt solid honey under a hot water tap without losing its beneficial properties. In urban apartments, the temperature of hot water according to SNiP is maintained at 60-75 degrees, depending on the season. If you want to melt a 3 liter glass jar or a smaller jar, just put it on the battery, but in this case it will be difficult for you to control the temperature at which it will melt into honey, which can be detrimental to its beneficial qualities.
An easier and more reliable way is to use a water tap, the water temperature can be adjusted according to your wishes. We recommend that you stop at a jet temperature of 40-50 degrees, you can measure it with a regular home thermometer or thermometer. The next step is to shift the amount of frozen honey you need from the common container into a tied plastic bag or a glass jar with a lid and leave it for a while under water pressure. The drain hole can be closed to save consumption, but in this case you will have to control the temperature by constantly heating the cooling water.
How to melt honey in a glass jar
In order to melt any amount of solid honey in a glass jar, it is best to either use a water tap (the method is described above) or use a water bath (this method + video can be found below in the article). A flowing jet of hot water or a container of hot water will easily melt thickened mature honey. The main thing - do not forget to control the temperature so as not to spoil the valuable product and not to reduce its medicinal properties.
How to melt honey in a water bath at home
One of the easiest and most affordable ways to melt honey is a water bath. To do this, you will need two pots (one should fit into the other and leave a place for water between the walls and the bottom). Pour water into a large saucepan and turn on the heat at minimum power. Now place a smaller saucepan in it, make sure that it does not touch the walls or bottom. Pour water into a smaller saucepan and place a jar of solid honey in it (you can see this process in detail in the video). To control the temperature, we recommend that you use a regular outdoor thermometer, which will allow you to see temperature changes. When the temperature on the scale of the outdoor thermometer, lowered into the water of a small saucepan, exceeds the mark of 50 degrees, the tile must be turned off for 20-30 minutes so as not to spoil the thermometer. To speed up the process, cover the honey with a lid to create greenhouse conditions inside the jar. If the temperature has dropped to 40 degrees and the honey has not yet melted, you can turn the stove back on. In the video below, we demonstrate how to convert 300 grams of solid honey to a liquid state, using the water temperature in the inner pot no more than 55 degrees (it took us about 60 minutes of time and 2 heatings of water to achieve the result).
How to melt honey Video:
How to melt last year's honey in the microwave
One of the quickest and easiest ways to turn last year's honey from a solid to a liquid state is in the microwave. It will take you less than a minute to melt a tablespoon of old honey in the oven. Microwaves quickly penetrate the structure, affecting the water contained in any honey. The heated water transfers its heat to other components and the sweet treat begins to melt. Although this method is very simple and fast, it is not optimal. Studies have shown that heating food in the microwave reduces the nutritional value of foods. Multiplying this by the high sensitivity of honey to heat, we can conclude that when heated, you risk losing all the beneficial substances that it contains. It is not possible to control the heating temperature in the microwave. Therefore, use this method when it is important for you to quickly get liquid honey without retaining its healing properties, say, as an ingredient for baking or any dish that requires heat treatment.
How to melt honey with lemon
The statement that lemon melts honey is not entirely true, in part it is of course true, but the result may not please everyone. We conducted an experiment, the photographs below show how a lemon slice put into honey behaves after 15 minutes and after 4 hours. It is noticeable in the photo that after 15 minutes the honey becomes more liquid on the surface, and after 4 hours the area of liquid honey increases. The experiment showed that natural lemon can only melt honey in a very small amount. Therefore, this method is appropriate for those who want to add a teaspoon of honey to a cold drink or smoothie. The best proportion for harvesting will be the proportion: 1 slice of lemon per spoon of honey.
How to melt honey in a jar
When asking the question of how to melt honey in a flask, most likely you are a beekeeper who is responsible for product quality, treat this with understanding and do not use prohibited methods that can be detrimental to the beneficial properties of your collection. When selling honey in flasks, you need to know that there are two ways to dissolve candied honey, this is an artisanal and industrial method.
On an industrial scale, thick honey is heated on high-speed electric heaters that maintain a temperature of 55-60 degrees. If you do not have a factory heater capable of doing this, you can use improvised methods for this.
Put a jar of honey in a heated bath, at a temperature of 60-80 degrees, the temperature on the floor will be lower, just about 40-50 degrees, burning in the oven must be maintained for 1-2 days.
Use a flat-type electric heater with a flexible heat-resistant electrical insulating film inside, such as Good Heat. The scheme is simple, wrap the can with such a heater, set the desired temperature, and then wrap the object of heating with a warm blanket to speed up the processes. In order to melt a can of honey, you will need an average of 48-72 hours.
How to melt honey in combs
As a rule, the end consumer receives honey in combs in a liquid state. Keeping it in a frame for a long time is quite problematic, since honey will gradually flow out of the honeycombs. Framed honey has its own unique characteristics, if you managed to get such a product for personal use, do not try to separate the combs and honey, but feel free to eat chopped combs that contain ripe flower honey. In this case, your body will not only benefit from honey, but also be charged with useful vitamins and minerals from perga, propolis, and natural wax. Well-chewed wax honeycombs, after losing their taste, you can spit them out, if you swallowed them, nothing bad will happen.
How to melt honey in a plastic container
You can melt honey in a plastic container in the same way as in a glass jar. How to do this correctly is described above in the section "How to melt honey with hot water." This technology will allow you to protect yourself from the harmful effects of burning plastic, which, if heated excessively, can release substances hazardous to the health of any person.
Hydroxymethylfurfural
Separately, I would like to dwell on such a chemical element as hydroxymethylfurfural (OMF). Many sources claim that when honey is heated, this element begins to be actively released into honey, turning it from a useful product into a very dangerous one. We hasten to assure you that everything is not so scary, and all the above heating methods cannot provide a significant formation of hydroxymethylfurfural in honey.
In order to understand the veracity of the statement that honey cannot be heated at all, it is worth understanding the concepts of melting and dissolution. The melting point is the temperature at which glucose crystals begin to melt. Glucose has a high coefficient of solubility in water, with increasing temperature, the dissolution rate only increases, at temperatures above 50 degrees, glucose passes from the monohydrate to the anhydride form. Knowing the chemical characteristics of the substance glucose, you can control its properties, in order to prevent thickening, honey is heated. Heating honey as a rule has a detrimental effect on the quality of honey and its beneficial properties. At temperatures above 40 degrees, all healing structures that have beneficial effects on the human body begin to collapse. With strong heating, close to the boiling point of water, caramelization processes begin in honey, it begins to darken and lose its taste characteristics.
Oxymethylfurfural is formed by heating carbohydrate compounds in acidic environments, if we shift this to honey, then the main source that promotes the formation of (OMF) is the partial decomposition of fructose during excessive heating. But hydroxymethylfurfural is not as dangerous a substance as some sources write about it. GOST regulates the maximum allowable amount of hydroxymethylfurfural in 1 kg of honey at the level of 25 mg. For comparison, we can cite roasted coffee beans as an example, which contain tens or even hundreds of times more hydroxymethylfurfural, it’s just that it is not customary to use this substance in coffee to assess the quality of beans.
It is difficult to say unequivocally whether honey should be liquid or thick. It all depends on what variety is in front of your eyes. For a fraudster who seeks to deceive you, there is nothing easier than mixing in chalk, starch, or heating up your product in order to make it fluid.
If you are a non-professional beekeeper, then it will be very difficult for you to determine which product is of high quality, as well as which one to choose: liquid or thick honey. But do not despair, there is a way out even from the darkest tunnel: you need to buy the honey that has already been candied. And already thick - melt in a water bath (or take it with you to a regular sauna). Although they say that this is not very useful (melt).
You can do it differently: buy acacia bee nectar, which will solve all problems, because it slowly crystallizes. So you definitely won't go wrong. Experts advise to be more careful with a liquid product. Why? You are not the only one who could have guessed to take advantage of going to the sauna, oh, that is, the water bath.
How to become not a victim, but a happy buyer?
Timeliness
If you buy honey on time, then you won’t have to invent anything, since the fresh collection is a priori liquid. First of all, it should be taken into account that linden and buckwheat are pollinated earlier, and therefore, the bee product turns out just like that, well, it is sold earlier. But don't forget about deadlines. And this is the beginning of summer.
Liquid honey can only be found in the summer months, because this is the peak of the honey collection, which means that the resulting product has not yet had time to be candied.
Wrong bees and wrong nectar
You can cheat a gullible buyer in many ways, for example, you may not be completely fake, but just some kind of wrong honey obtained from the wrong bees, as the great Winnie the Pooh said. That is, these insects were fed with sugar syrup, and they obviously received an overdose more than once.
It’s one thing when the weather is bad outside and the bees don’t have enough pollen because of this: so you have to feed them out of hopelessness. Feeding them sugar every day is very, very bad. The beekeeper should think about it, remember about his conscience.
natural properties
Acacia can be the longest in a liquid state. Other varieties turn into a thick mass much faster, literally in a matter of months.
If you purchased liquid sunflower honey sometime in October, it means that the owner has successfully worked on it, and not at all in a good sense of the word, and you have become a victim of a brazen scammer!
Liquid product - right?
It should probably be said that liquid honey is the most useful, because it means that it is fresh (or a warmed fake)! As soon as the product was pumped out and brought from the apiary for sale, natural bee sweetness appeared in front of you in its best form.
Why is it considered that the bee delicacy should be sparse?
- Firstly, liquid means natural, especially if it was bought in the first days of summer.
- Secondly, if the beekeeper's product turned out to be very thick, then this may be a sign that the bees are sick, and you are risking your health by trying it.
In order not to fall for the bait of deceivers, who only want to cash in on your naivety, buy bee sweets at specialized fairs and exhibitions. There they will tell you what is what, because different varieties differ little in color. It must be of good quality.
Kinds
- rapeseed;
- buckwheat;
- lime.
These are varieties that do not crystallize the longest and retain an attractive appearance.
rapeseed
Prepared from a rare plant that is used in agriculture. Rapeseed honey has a sharp aroma because it contains a high percentage of volatile compounds in essential oils. Its taste is sweet and cloying. The color scheme is light with some presence of a yellowish tint. The only negative is that it must be stored at a very low temperature.
But, despite this, the plant was made a regular component of traditional medicine.
Buckwheat
It is dark, rich and, of course, healing. It is collected from a single buckwheat plant. Most often, the flowering period occurs in July. This variety is called the elixir of youth. It should always contain a component of glucose and levulose. Therefore, it is difficult to make a fake of this variety. This bee elixir is used to restore joints and muscles, as well as sprains and injuries.
Lime
Pollen is collected from a linden tree, but you will rarely encounter such honey in its pure form, since bees cannot collect pollen from a single tree, they fly around other flowers and plants. Therefore, it cannot be attributed to monofloral.
This variety is useful for colds, flu and weak lungs. In this form, there are many chemical compounds such as lipase, catalase, vitamins E, K and others. It is famous for its bactericidal properties.
It remains to be recalled that only acacia honey remains in liquid form for a long period of time.
Can it be made liquid?
Nowadays, making thick liquid honey is not problematic. Can you guess the simplest solution?
Surely! You need to heat the crystallized honey! It is worth remembering that at a temperature of 40 degrees, your nectar will lose almost all of its useful properties. But that's half the trouble! When it melts, a substance such as hydroxymethylfurfural is produced, which in simple terms is poison.
Melting methods
So, what can be done to get liquid honey from a thick bee product:
- Leave it in a hot room (did you think we were joking about the sauna?)
- Warm up on an open fire (do not forget about the poison and the loss of nutrients, so it's better not to risk it)
- Make a water bath. Everything is as easy as shelling pears, you need to heat the water to 40 degrees, and then hold a jar of contents in it and you will get liquid honey.
Comparison with candied
Why is it considered that the most useful honey is liquid? This is far from true. The crystallized product should have the same properties and useful elements. There are varieties that are subject to rapid crystallization, while others are stored in a liquid state for a long time.
If candied honey has large crystals and there are no peelings on the surface, we can assume that the product has passed the quality test!
As far as we remember, melted liquid honey loses all its beneficial properties, so the next time you drink tea with it, eat it rather than dissolve it instead of sugar.
But quite often, liquid honey is obtained precisely from candied honey, which has been subjected to heat treatment.
Benefit
Well, of course it's useful! Everything depends just the same not on whether the honey is liquid in front of you, whether it is thick, but only on the plant from which the nectar was collected. For example, rapeseed, linden and buckwheat species are collected from medicinal plants, respectively, and the final product retains all their beneficial properties. Even in medicine, they have found their place!
Almost all honey, just pumped out of honeycombs, is liquid. What can we say, if all this was done during the honey plant period. Only after a while it crystallizes, but does not lose its magical healing qualities.
How to choose?
When choosing honey, be guided only by your taste preferences. Someone likes liquid: you can spread it evenly on bread, pour it over cakes, as a decoration, it’s nice to drink with tea, the viscosity is mesmerizing. Others like thick - savor each crystal, add it to tea and make sandwiches that should not spread and smear. To each his own! How to be? Follow your heart!
The myth of honey (video)
Crystallization and thickening (video)
Everyone who loves honey is probably wondering what happens to the honey mass when thickened and why does it become less liquid? We will help you figure out why honey thickens quickly, talk about this unusual process and reveal its secrets!
There are several reasons for the onset of such a process, and all of them are caused mainly by the specifics of the substance. As you know, honey is a substance that is between a liquid and a solid state, physicists would call it an amorphous substance. Indeed, under certain conditions, this sweetness can thicken faster or slower.
The planting process is affected by:
- the percentage of water in the substance;
- storage time, degree of freshness;
- sugar spectrum;
- the number of seed crystals;
- additional processing steps.
What is the sugar spectrum of honey?
The combination of glucose and fructose in honey is called the sugar spectrum. In flower honeys, the value of this indicator reaches 80%, in honeydew - almost 60%. Both fructose and glucose are monosaccharides, and are born from sucrose in nectar, thanks to special enzymes that bees secrete.
Different types of sweet product have different levels of monosaccharides, but fructose often predominates. It is the sugar spectrum, along with other factors, that determines how honey will crystallize.
The amount of fructose in the raw material explains how quickly the product will thicken. When this component is in abundance, the bee gift will not become hard very soon, but if it does thicken, it will exfoliate and not lose its softness. Rich in fructose can be recognized in a thickened state by dividing the mass in a jar into two layers: the lower one is lighter, with crystals, and the upper one is dark and liquid. Such a product does not look marketable, but it is quite difficult to sell it.
When should real honey thicken?
How quickly honey thickens is also directly affected by the amount of water in the mass in relation to glucose. If the latter is several times more than water, the raw material will certainly begin to thicken.
In other words, when the mass is more saturated with glucose, it solidifies faster. Why? Because honey naturally contains many times more sugars than is necessary for them to remain liquid at normal storage temperatures.
A real, high-quality bee product thickens in different ways, so it’s impossible to say that the raw material has thickened incorrectly. The more water in honey, the longer it will remain soft, and the higher its viscosity will be.
The so-called cream honey has the highest viscosity, it literally falls into a spoon like a cream and is gently spread on bread. More attention should be paid to the market, because it is quite difficult to recognize a fake product.
Too, which does not hold its shape at all on any surface, should arouse suspicion. And if you drop them on paper and notice wet traces around the sweet spot, then you can confidently say - a fake was bought! Despite the thickening process, the bee gift should not smell like flowers, but only honey. An exception may be raw materials obtained from willow-herb nectar, in which case the smell will be specific, pungent.
How to distinguish a real product from a fake by crystallization?
We note right away that any honey should crystallize, regardless of the variety. This is a natural process, and even if it does not happen quickly, it still takes place. So, how to determine by the crystallization process whether you bought a fake? If jars containing sweetness are kept cool, such honey will thicken slowly. But if, even being warm, the product does not change its consistency at all, there is already a reason to think.
The correct temperature at which it is best is about 18 ° C. At the same time, it is good to store a mass with large crystals at an average temperature, and a finely crystalline mass in a cool place (basement, cellar). Germ crystals, which were mentioned at the very beginning, are also called crystallization centers. They consist of glucose, which, as we already know, the more - the better for thickening.
Good evenly! The process takes place neatly, without delamination of the mass. If there are different varieties in the jar, mixed, and even diluted with water or syrups, this will be immediately noticeable. How exactly? By division into "tiers" and the formation of a liquid layer at the top of the jar.
If the mineral composition of bee gold is normal, its viscosity will be optimal, and softness and delicate taste will be felt on the tongue. A low-quality, fake product is also prone to fermentation, therefore, if foam is visible in the jar, you should not buy such a product.
When buying honey, each person pays attention to its consistency. But often buyers have a question about why honey is liquid and does not thicken for a long time. In many cases, this phenomenon indicates the low quality of the bee product, in particular, casts doubt on the naturalness of the components used.
According to statistics, more beautiful, liquid elixir is usually sold, and people pay much less attention to the candied product. Buyers are accustomed to believing that high quality stands behind a bright label and an unusual shape of a vessel, and the price in this case does not play a big role. However, this is not always the case. Increasingly, in the markets you can find a fake, which is sometimes difficult to distinguish from real honey. Therefore, before making a choice, it is worth paying attention to the external signs of nectar in order to assess the degree of its quality. If possible, you should make a sample of the product and feel its aroma.
What should be real honey?
Bee elixir comes in liquid or thick form. Initially, flowing nectar must necessarily become thick, provided that it does not contain artificial additives and flavor enhancers. Even if it was purchased in an excellent liquid state, after a couple of months the natural thickening process will begin. At the same time, there are some types of honey that remain liquid, for example, a bee product from acacia. It can retain its malleability for years if properly stored.
Many people ask if honey should thicken immediately after purchase or if there are any peculiarities in its crystallization. The main reason for accelerated or delayed thickening is the presence of additional components. As a rule, the density and richness of honey is determined by the amount of glucose it contains. The higher this indicator, the faster the process of crystallization of the substance begins. If natural nectar does not contain glucose, but fructose, then thickening will take a very long time. Such varieties as acacia, fireweed are rich in fructose.
Selection of natural bee products
If the product does not fall into the section where the liquid is a familiar state, then you should think about the factors that affect the state of the substance. Often on store shelves you can find diluted honey or falsification. To distinguish a natural product from a fake, you must follow the instructions when buying:
- the mass should smell like honeycombs, not flowers (the exception is liquid honey from Ivan tea);
- if the nectar quickly flows from a spoon like water, while splashing and spreading, then this product is a falsification;
- the color of the nectar should be natural and match the description.
When choosing a natural bee product, it is also worth considering the reason for its purchase. If you use natural honey as a cream or massage agent, then you should give preference to a more liquid variety. And if honey is purchased for consumption or is an ingredient for another dish, then the choice should be stopped at a thickened mixture.
Calorie bee product
The consistency of golden nectar also affects how many calories in a teaspoon of honey the consumer will have. Since ancient times, a natural bee product helps in the fight against many diseases, and is an integral part of dietary nutrition. You can make wonderful infusions and healing medicines from bee blanks.
Why is there a difference in calories? To begin with, it is worth paying attention to the fact that the specific gravity of liquid nectar differs from that of the one that has already thickened. A product that has formed a crystal lattice and turned into a honey gruel will be slightly more caloric than its liquid counterpart. The number of calories is also affected by the type of honey, additives and components that are used in its preparation. On average, a bee product has a calorie content of 327 calories per 100 grams. But this indicator largely depends on the type of product:
- floral - 303 k. per 100 grams;
- acacia - 335 k. per 100 grams;
- linden - 323 k. per 100 grams;
- heather - 309 k. per 100 grams;
- buckwheat - 301 k. per 100 grams.
There are 16-18 calories in one teaspoon. With the regular use of this amount of the product in food, the metabolism improves significantly, vivacity and good mood appear, the body is cleansed of toxins and toxins.
Product storage rules
Crystallization of the product is normal. Over time, any bee infusion will become more and more solid and candied. As a rule, all such processes depend on the storage temperature. If you keep a fresh product in the refrigerator, then its crystallization will slow down. If you put a barrel of nectar in a sunny place or even leave it on a table at room temperature, then you should expect an accelerated crystallization process. It is worth remembering that at a temperature of -45ºС and below, the substance hardens without freezing. There are several rules, the observance of which will help to keep real honey in a beautiful liquid state:
- you can not store food in an iron container (it is better to use a table pot);
- bee products should be located away from fish and seafood;
- it is necessary to tightly close the lid of the barrel with a liquid drug.
When choosing a place to store a bee product, it is worth considering the humidity of the room. The lower this indicator, the more likely it is that natural nectar will retain its original state for a long time. If the humidity is too high, then the product may lose its viscosity, the consistency will be similar to water. But if, nevertheless, the elixir began to change its shape and color, then the thickening nectar should be heated or moved to a dark, cool room.
Let's start with the background
I, like many ordinary buyers, have never thought about what natural honey should be like? Yes, and I have never been a big fan of this product in order to know how to distinguish natural honey from a fake. I just went out of necessity, I note very rarely, to a store selling beekeeping products, and bought everything that was offered to me. And it was offered, as usual, pre-poured into jars, frozen, solid honey from the shelf. In this regard, I have developed, like many stereotypes, the quality of honey. In winter, honey should crystallize and become thick. And the offer to buy liquid honey scared me.
Friends helped me to break this stereotype. Which somehow one year, all summer stood in the meadows, collecting pure meadow honey. Once again, having pumped out the honey and brought it home from the apiary, they treated me to this natural creation of nature, pouring a liter jar of light yellow very tasty smelling honey.
At home, this liter jar of honey was empty in almost three days. Everyone fell in love with liquid, without any grains, odorous, natural honey.
When they again brought honey from the meadows. I was one of the first standing near their car with a three-liter jar, waiting for the bottling of a precious product, I didn’t know how to distinguish natural honey then, so I completely trusted the beekeepers.
Since there were few friends in the apiary, they could not collect much honey. And he quickly dispersed. I had no chance to buy it, and we were forced to save, such a tasty and healthy delicacy.
Thus, honey, purchased in July, safely stood in a liquid state until the new year, when it was solemnly eaten with tea.
This bewitchingly delicious, incomparable with any other honey I have eaten, and prompted the idea to try to do it myself.
Honey and flowers
I will not tell you how my more experienced friend and I took care of the bees, how they pumped honey. These are completely different stories, in many ways instructive for beginner beekeepers. But I will say one thing, I spent the summer with an apiary, in flood meadows, where all summer, which I did not notice before, flowers bloomed, different at each time.
At first, some dominated in color, faded, others began to predominate and bloom, respectively, and honey after each stroke was different in color and taste. The first honey harvest, which I pumped out, was almost black, but very tasty with the smell of wild rose, the thickets of which were very numerous in that place, and it bloomed actively, probably for two weeks. I suppose that most of the nectar in the first bribe was collected by bees from it.
By the way, this first and incredibly fragrant, delicious honey froze in almost two weeks.
The next bribe brought very liquid, light yellow honey with a little greenery. The next two strokes were transparent, dark brown, slightly thicker, tart with bitterness.
The last honey I pumped out was hazy, bright yellow.
liquid honey
I immediately sold the first honey, and distributed it to friends and acquaintances. The second one also left quickly. Therefore, I can not say anything about its quality. But I still have the rest of the honey, but I think that it will not be for long, and they will also take it away before spring. By the way, it is already the end of December, and there is no hint that the honey is thickening.
Honey storage
I store honey in food buckets, at home, at an average temperature of plus twenty-four degrees. The bright yellow has thickened a little, but it still pours easily, and until it becomes solid.
I suppose that the majority of beekeepers still strive for profit and the sale of the honey they have collected, and when answering the questions of ordinary people about how to distinguish natural honey, they are a little cunning, saying that real honey should thicken and become hard by winter, on its own. Experience has proven that this is not true.
It all depends on the flowers from which the nectar was collected, and the conditions in which the honey is stored.
I know that professional beekeepers take the main bribe of honey from cultivated plants, buckwheat, sunflower, at least in our region, and, as you know, it freezes within a month. But still, the most natural honey, as I think, with proper storage should not thicken until warm spring days, otherwise how, exhausted by wintering and lack of water, can a bee gnaw at frozen, thick honey?
I wrote an article at the end of December, and was not yet one hundred percent sure that my opinion was right.
Preparing for the new season
And here is the result of sorting the hives after the wintering of the bees. Today is April 14, and these are mustaches left in the hive from last year. Unfortunately, almost eaten by my household.
As we can see, honey flows in them, and has not frozen at all, as some beekeepers claim.
Yes, and on the main photo there is a photograph of a saucer with honeycombs against the background of blossoming leaves of trees. The photo was taken by the wife as proof that the honey in the combs did not crystallize.
Output
In order not to doubt the quality of honey, you must have your own apiary, or take honey from those people whom you trust and do not doubt their honesty.
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