If 3/4 of the frame or frames is covered in cappings, it aught to be alright to extract. What is the humidity level like there in TX?
I had several 5 gal. buckets of honey last year that tested 19 to 21 moisture content, i set them in chairs in the basement with netting over them and a fan blowing over the top of them. With the air conditioning and the fan on them it took about a week but i got it down to 16.5% and 17% moisture content. Jack
I would buy a refractometer to check it with. You can get a good one for less than 150 and that is about as cheap of insurance policy you can buy to protect your honey from fermenting
at your location and given the quantity of tallow I would say yes I would be concerned with extracting any uncapped honey. mark ask: What is the humidity level like there in TX? tecumseh: well Texas is a big place and conditions vary here quite a lot. Chick is down on the coast and humidity there is often time 100%. Here the humidity is somewhat intermediate (although folks that visit here never think so). Travel just a bit westward from here not so many miles and the humidity level is 0%.
Like riverrat said, i would buy a refractometer. I guess i was just lucky, but for years ( 60's through the 80's) i never had a refractometer ( didn't know what one was), if the frame of honey was 3/4 capped and i couldn't shake any of the uncapped honey out, i extracted and bottled it. I never had a problem . Jack
The humidity is high. There was not that much uncapped, but I was afraid of the honey being uncured. I bought a refractometer, a couple of months ago, but they didn't include the dioptric oil and special block needed, to calibrate it. I have it coming now. If you buy one on ebay, be sure to tell the seller you need the oil and block. They all have them, they just don't tell you about it. It's $10 more. The oil by itself, is like $245 for a quarter ounce, here in the states.
