Last year I had a super of crystallized honey that I scratched open and gave to my four hives.  I just gave them a frame here and a frame there, as I added supers throughout the spring and summer.  I really didn't know what they would do with it but I thought perhaps they might re-liquifiy the honey.  Now I think it was probably a mistake to do this.

I usually don't get around to extracting until Christmas and have never had a problem with crystallized honey in the frames.  But this year about three-quarters of the frames contained crystallized honey.  Possibly the crystallized honey I gave them was dispersed throughout the supers and caused the rest to crystallize?

My question are:

1. What do bees do with crystallized honey when it's given to them as I did?
2.  What can I do with the crystallized honey I have - about 7 or 8  medium supers?  I scratched most of it open and it's now stored in a porch at below freezing temp.
3.  What's the procedure  for getting the honey out of the frames for mead?  I've heard about immersing open frames in buckets of water.  How many pounds of honey would be in a medium frame?

Sharon

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