Excessively liquid honey; liquid honey running out of comb cells; smell of spoilage when opening colony or honey container.
Honey with too-high moisture content may ferment unless processed by worker bees. Fermenting honey may occasionally occur within weak colonies having too small an adult population or in colonies with high small hive beetle populations (their slime includes fermenting honey). Fermentation should be guarded against once supers are removed, before beekeeper processing, and following honey extraction.
Yeasts will cause the higher-moisture honey to ferment (producing a “wine”), and bacteria acidify the alcohol so the honey takes on a vinegar taste and smell. Both processes can be managed by beekeepers or food processors to produce honey wine (mead) or honey vinegar.
One should only harvest fully cappedcapping:
the covering that bees add over comb cells containing fully ripened honey or to cap brood that has reached the pupal stage; bee bread cells are not capped
frames and supers to avoid collecting honey prone to fermentation. Prompt processing is necessary. Don't remove supers until ready to extract honey.
Refractometer used to determine moisture level of extracted honey is variously described as needing to be under 18.6%, 19%, or 21% (depending on the source) to avoid fermentation.
honey with bubbles; vinegary smell with honey running down combs; small hive beetle slime
Burlew R. 2015. Uncapped honey fermenting in the comb. Honey Bee Suite. Accessed 2023. https://www.honeybeesuite.com/uncapped-honey-fermenting-in-the-comb/
“Fermented Honey and Moisture Problems”. YouTube, uploaded by Bob Binnie, 16 August, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAat1XQ-yiI
Singh I and Singh S. 2018. Honey moisture reduction and its quality. Journal of Food Science and Technology 55(10): 3861–3871. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13197-018-3341-5
