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Bucket of honey is bubbling and smells sour — is it fermenting, and can it still be used for anything?

I think I have ruined a whole bucket of honey and I want to know if any of it can be saved. İzmir, second year, four hives. I extracted at the end of August, in a hurry, and took some frames that were only partly capped because I needed the supers off. Most of it went into jars and is fine. One 25 kg bucket got left on the shaded balcony with the lid just resting on top. Today I opened it: a layer of foam on top, small bubbles rising when I tilt it, and it smells sour — like cider, or bread dough. Borrowed the club refractometer and it reads 20%. I can't sell this, I understand. But is it wasted? People at the club said three different things: feed it back to the bees, make mead, use it for baking. One person said feeding fermented honey to bees will kill them. Which is right? And is there anything I should have done differently besides not taking uncapped frames? 😞
#fermented-honey#moisture-content#mead#refractometer
▲ 1 votes 💬 2 replies
2 replies
IstriaBee · Sep 29, 2026
It is fermenting, and that cannot be undone. Anything much above ~18.5% water plus the wild yeasts that live in every honey will eventually go, and 20% in a warm humid September goes fast. Your club is right on two counts and wrong on one: mead and baking, yes; bees, no. Do not feed fermented honey — the alcohol and by-products give them dysentery, and a colony going into winter does not need that. The honest good news is that 25 kg at the start of fermentation is a mead-maker's dream; it has already begun the job for you.
muglabalci · Sep 29, 2026
From Muğla, where I did exactly this in my second year with pine honey. Two uses. Bakery honey: heat it gently to around 60°C for a short time to stop the yeast, then label it as baking honey, not table honey — the flavour is a bit sharp but fine in bread and baklava. Mead: dilute to roughly 1 part honey to 3-4 parts water, pitch a proper wine yeast rather than trusting the wild one, airlock, and be patient. Either way, that bucket is not wasted.
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