I just put the last 10 gallons of honey in the honey heater. That gives me just shy of 20 gallons to use for the remainder of Winter and the first part of Spring. By the time I sale or use this up, I will be ready to pull Wildflower honey the last of April. I still have nearly one barrel left that I can tag for bulk shipping, or use for retail if I do run out before Spring extraction.

I have told about heating honey for 8 to 24 hours. That is correct except!? — when the weather is below freezing for several nights and the honey is outside, the honey will granulate faster, and even Tupelo, that does not granulate, will thicken to the point that heating will take some extra time. You need to use common sense and check the honey every so often to see what the status is. It may take two or more days of heat to thin the honey to straining viscosity. I suspect that I will need to leave the honey in the heater for at least 72 hours.

When checking the honey, I use a small paint stirrer and a 1/2″ variable speed drill to stir the honey slowly to keep air bubbles from mixing in, then let it heat some more. This I may have to do several times to make sure the crystals are all gone.

Once the honey is heated and strained, I put it aside until I need it, then all I have to do is heat it again until it is warm and pour into  my bottling bucket so the bubbles will rise to the top halfway quickly. Nothing is wrong with the bubbles being in the honey, but it is more attractive to the customers without the bubbles.

Something else you can do at this time is read books and check your retail containers; 12 oz. bears, 1 lb. jars, 1 1/2 lbs. pints, 3 lbs. quarts, etc. Always have some on hand for customers on the spur of the moment orders.