I doubt that the notion that bees can't use crystallized honey in the  
winter is true.  I learned beekeeping from Mr. Robert Talcott, a Montana  
beekeeper from Broadus, MT.  To this day, his colonies were the strongest  that 
I've ever seen, and his honey production on average, for a commercial  
beekeeping operation was very high.
 
His bee operation was in one of the coldest areas of Montana, with lots of  
snow.  His colonies were always amazingly strong in the spring.  He  
explained that his philosophy was that the bigger the bee population  in the fall, 
the stronger in the early spring, when Montana, with its short  growing 
season, got the first pollen and nectar flows.  He believed that  the more bees 
in the colonies in the spring, when that first flush hit, the  better his 
colonies would do for the rest of the summer.  Have weak  colonies in early 
spring - they'd fail to harvest the early bloom.  
 
He admitted that lots of bees ate lots of food, and that because the  
winters were variable, how much food per year was always a question.
 
So, each year, he placed a pallet in the corner of each apiary.  He  then 
stacked enough supers full of honey on these pallets to allow him to ADD  
honey to the colonies in January.  Obviously, he tarped these  supers up to 
keep out robbers.  
 
In Montana, we get a January warm spell, often a thaw, then it gets  cold 
again in February.  Bob would load up a snowmobile and head out.   The drifts 
were so deep, he'd just back up to a snowbank, run the  snowmobile off his 
pickup, and drive over the top of the fences.
 
When he got to the apiary, he'd take a snow shovel, dig down to each  
colony, pop the lid.  If he decided that the colony was going to be short  on 
food, he'd add a super of honey from the boxes on the pallet.  That way,  he 
didn't have starved off colonies in the spring.
 
In the spring, he'd go around to the yards, pick up any of the honey supers 
 still on the pallets, take them home, and store them in his warehouse for 
the  next winter.
 
Now, the honey was crystallized, yet the bees apparently used it.  If  they 
couldn't, many should have starved.
 
Jerry
 
 

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