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Bees & beekeeping: Crucial temperatures and other figures
Hive:
|
Temp |
RH |
CO2 |
|
35°C +/-0.5 |
45% |
0.1-4.3% |
Effects of temperature and time on diastase and HMF
|
Temperature |
Time to halve diastase level |
Time to raise HMF to 30 mg/kg |
|
20°C |
1500 days |
300 days |
|
30°C |
200 days |
60 days |
|
52°C |
3 days |
|
|
70°C |
5 hours |
4.5 hours |
Normal diastase level is 40 – 8 is legal limit (i.e. the higher the better)
HMF is very low in fresh honey – legal limit is 40 mg/kg (i.e. the lower the better)
|
Action |
Temperature |
period |
|
To filter honey |
36°C (35-38°C) |
3-4 days? Until liquid? |
|
To prepare ling for filtration |
49°C |
As necessary to reach uniform temp |
|
To store long term |
<10°C |
12 months |
|
To warm granulated (seed) honey to produce soft set |
32°C |
2-3 days |
|
To liquefy honey prior to seeding |
66°C |
Until liquid |
|
To bottle honey |
49°C |
24 hrs |
|
To blend different honeys |
49°C |
As necessary to reach uniform temp |
|
To granulate quickly |
14°C |
– |
|
To delay granulation (Yates) |
54°C |
45 minutes |
|
To delay granulation (Doug Brown, BBKA News Aug 2012) |
63°C |
1 hr |
|
To spoil honey by “burning” |
71-82°C |
|
|
To destroy yeasts |
63°C |
30 minutes |
|
To caramelize ling honey (not good!) |
>66°C |
|
|
To degrade honey |
>35-40°C |
|
|
To melt beeswax |
64°C |
Phil Khorassandjian
Jan 2014