Welcome - Explore my Blog

I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

Even if you find one post on the subject, I've posted a lot on basic beekeeping skills like installing bees, harvesting honey, inspecting the hive, etc. so be sure to search for more once you've found a topic of interest to you. And watch the useful videos and slide shows on the sidebar. All of them have captions. Please share posts of interest via Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

Need help with an Atlanta area swarm? Visit Found a Swarm? Call a Beekeeper. ‪(404) 482-1848‬

Want to Pin this post?

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

"Wet" honey cappings and "dry" honey cappings


When I opened Mellona today, I found some honey that had "wet" cappings. Most of the honey in my hives has "dry" cappings. According to Kim Flottum in The Backyard Beekeeper on page 97:

"You'll find frames that have what are called "wet" cappings,.....and "dry" cappings. When bees place the wax covering over the cell filled with ripe honey, they either place the wax capping directly on the honey, giving the cap a wet appearance, or they leave a tiny airspace between the wax and the surface of the honey, giving the cap a dry appearance. Comb honey producers prefer the dry look, but neither wet nor dry caps have any effect on the quality or flavor of the honey."
The upper picture illustrates "wet" cappings. The lower picture illustrates "dry" cappings.

The only remaining super that I have to harvest is on Mellona and the honey is mostly capped with "wet" cappings.
Posted by Picasa

1 comment:

  1. Your site is awesome. I saw a reference to wet and dry cappings on another site. I am a first year beekeeper, and this is the first time I had heard those terms.

    A quick google search and your site came up. It seems whenever I have a question, I can always find the answer on your site.

    Thanks for all the work you do.

    ReplyDelete

Pin this post

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...