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.
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.
ReplyDeleteA 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.