There are two ways to measure moisture in honey, the empirical and the instrumental.
The empirical becomes, generally in the apiary, before collecting the supers. Is extracted from molasses, a box of silkworm honey disopercolato and shakes vigorously, if not come out drops of honey from the cells, it means that it is quite dense and therefore mature and can therefore be collected without problems.
The instrumental, however it does with a tool called honey meter that measures the degree of humidity of the honey and its degree
sugar content expressed in degrees Brix in real time. Using the principle of refraction of the liquid, which vary according to their concentration. The honey meter is composed of a prism, by a tilting plate which covers the prism, a screw for the calibration, a reflective tube and an eyepiece with an adjustment ring for focusing.
It is used, lifting the plate by tilting the fixed prism and always keeping the tool in horizontal, apply a few drops of honey in a uniform manner on the surface of the prism, and then lower the platen tiltable on the prism. It then directs the honey meter to a light source and the data is read directly through the eyepiece that can be rotated to a proper focus. The best reading is made when the light beam exactly intersects the vertical line of the scale, engraved in the eyepiece. The dividing line that forms on the same scale, between the dark field that starts from the top and down to the bright field, shows us the percentage of water in honey.
These measurements must be repeated several times, to perform an average of the values indicative of the lots of honey. To avoid mistakes, it is important in subsequent measurements, clean the surface of the prism, with cotton soaked in water and dry it thoroughly.
The refractometer honey meter portable, proposed by Agritechstore, is a precision optical instrument particularly well suited to the measurement of the three common indexes of honey.
The three indexes are common:
This unit and 'distinguishing trait of a small volume, a modest weight, pleasant to look at and easy to use.
Applications:
1) Measurement of sugar content, air, water used in the industries of honey production.
2) Measurement of sugar content in the solutions with a high percentage of sugar, 58-90%.
3) Measurement of the specific gravity and the index of honey diopter with reference to the accompanying tables.
This refractometer / honey meter, proposed by Agritechstore, is equipped with automatic temperature compensation ATC can provide accurate measurements without the need to recalibrate the everything following the changes of temperature in the workplace.
Important: