Brewing with honey, prep the honey?

I brewed this on Sunday:

Original Gravity: 1.073 (1.048 - 1.065)
Terminal Gravity: 1.018 (1.002 - 1.012)
Color: 6.76 (5.0 - 14.0)
Alcohol: 7.24% (5.0% - 7.0%)
Bitterness: 29.2 (20.0 - 35.0)

Ingredients:
0.5*lb Honey Malt (steep)
6.0*lb Dry Light Extract
1.0*oz Czech Saaz (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60*m
1.0*tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15*m
1.0*oz Citra™ (13.9%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0*m
3.0*lb Orange Blossom Honey (add to primary at peak krausen)
1.0*ea WYeast 3711 French Saison

Gravity prior to primary was 1.054. I plan to add the honey as early as today as the krausen ring is coming up nicely. I have two questions with regards to the honey:

Is there anything I need to do to prep the honey prior to adding it to primary?

Do I stir the beer while adding the honey, after adding, both or not at all?

You can heat the honey up so it is more liquid and pours easier. As you pour you can gently swirl the beer to mix but do not introduce oxygen by mixing too vigorously. Be sure to properly sanitize your mixing utensil.

duboman said:

You can heat the honey up so it is more liquid and pours easier. As you pour you can gently swirl the beer to mix but do not introduce oxygen by mixing too vigorously. Be sure to properly sanitize your mixing utensil.

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This is just about what I was thinking as well. I'm thinking about warming up the honey is a warm water bath.

Oh, and I'm a nut when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing.

Depending on where you got your honey, some people will boil the honey or bring it to 160 degrees for 30 mins first to pasteurize it and remove some impurities. This can also remove some flavors that you may or may not want. There are plenty of articles on this subject and making mead. I think what duboman said is a good way to go. Possibly add some water or wort in with the honey to make it less viscous.

I just pour it in...sometimes at the start of fermentation, sometimes after the fermentation starts to die down

I pour my honey in at the conclusion of the boil.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I didnt even think to read the mead threads.

I'm putting together a recipe myself. I really want to preserve as much honey flavor as possible, which leads me away from boiling or even steeping the honey prior to adding it to the fermenter. I've only ever boiled it or added it to flame-out, so I'm not sure if I'm walking on dangerous ground for infection or not. What type of hops schedule is a good one to try?

I've read it is best to wait until the primary is over, then add the honey, either to the primary fermentor or after racking to a proper secondary. That way it will take weeks if not months for the yeast to chew through the honey sugars. Slightly higher than cellar temps will help in slowing it down.

If you were to add it to the boil or early primary, the abundance of yeast will be feasting, creating fusels and other byproducts, while stripping out precious honey flavor with the excessive early CO2 production, leaving the beer with very little honey flavor in the end.

We are doing a rum barrel project, and while racking the (mostly) finished beers (11 corny kegs) to the barrel we also added Treacle. Within a week secondary fermentation started, and has been bubbling slowly and steadily for 4 weeks now.

That sounds very reasonable thanks