I am a hobbyist with one hive in the backyard.  Yesterday was the first
warm weekend in northeast Ohio (65 F) so I decided to check on the hive.
Dead, unfortunately.  A double handful of dead bees at the top center
(right around the hole in the inner cover).  More bees dead with their
heads in the empty comb.  From listening on this list, I know that is a
sign that they starved.  My confusion is that most of the frames are still
heavy with honey.  Less than a third of the available honey appears to have
been consumed.

The complication is that I think most of the honey crystallized in the
comb.  Most of the cells have had the tops neatly cleaned off (therefore
not robbing?), but in the cell is a white grainy material.  The cell is 1/2
to 3/4 full of this stuff.  (Sometimes, there appears to be honey under a
layer of the white.)

To prove that it is crystallized honey, the only test I could think of (at
least with what I can find in my kitchen) was to see if the material
dissolved in water.  It did.

Supporting observations:
Much of the fall's extracted honey is crystallizing in the jars.
During the extraction last summer, I looked at some of the frames that were
still full of honey from the prior year.  (Last winter was very mild.)
There was crystallized honey in several of them, but I somehow assumed that
the bees could reliquify it, so I just put them back.
Lots of pollen still in the frames.
Some of the frames still have liquid honey in them.  That honey is visibly
a different color.  It was at the edges of the hive, though - outside
frames and corners.  This was a very cold winter and (also from listening
on this list) I suspect that the cluster may not have been able to break up
far enough to reach those areas.

Questions:
1.  Is this covered in the archives?  If so, does anyone know what keywords
would work?  I couldn't find much.
2.  Is there an easy test to confirm that the white stuff really is
crystallized honey?  (The only other beekeeper I know in the area thinks
that the white stuff is decomposing larvae.  I would not have expected the
material to dissolve in water if that were the case.)
3.  If I did have large-scale crystallization, is my hypothesis that the
hive starved reasonable?  (Late in the fall, I did find some evidence of
varroa mites, but the mite load seemed small so I left it untreated except
for the screened bottom board.  I use styrofoam hive bodies and
supplemented the ventilation with notches in the top of the inner cover.)
4.  Can bees reliquify crystallized honey?  Will they?
5.  If this is the problem, what can I do to prevent it next year?
6.  I'm thinking that the best solution right now is to extract every frame
and scrap the wax off so the new bees start over.  (Pierco plastic frames.
I won't get it all off but with a little elbow grease I think I can get
most.)  Is there a better way?

------------------------------------------
Mike Rossander
1-216-533-8294   (mobile)
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