"Mike Stoops" speculated:
>At what temperature does most of this honey reliquify?  120 - 130 degrees?
What happens >to the honey comb in this temperature range?  Can we heat up
the entire super to reliquify >the honey in the comb, then bring it out into
the honey house for uncapping and extracting?

I have to say that I have been surprised by this thread.  We have to deal
with rape honey that has granulated in the comb on a regular basis and I had
considered asking the group how they coped - expecting the our Canadian
friends would certainly have some good answers to the problem, given the
amount grown there.

The situation here in the UK has become worse over the years because modern
varieties of rape seem to flower earlier than previously and milder winters
are also bringing forward the flowering time.  When I started beekeeping in
1981 we expected rape to start flowering around the end of the first week in
May - now there may be significant flower in February and fields completely
yellow in late March.  With the crop flowering so much earlier, it only
needs one cold night for the bees to go back to a winter cluster and leave
the supers unattended.  The honey goes cold and starts to granulate - this
will then seed whatever is gathered later so this granulates as well.
Earlier flowering also produces an extended flowering period due to less
reliable weather - again leading to granulation.

As far as I know, it is impossible to reliquefy the honey in the comb.
Buckets of rape honey take 1-2 days at 120F, depending on their temperature
when placed in the warming cabinet.  Combs collapse long before the honey
liquefies.

I can suggest three methods to deal with the problem:

1 Avoid it by extracting earlier - OK on a small scale, but almost
impossible for anyone with more than a few hives (remember that this is also
heading into the swarming season and there is a great deal of apiary work to
do).
2 Scrape combs back to the midrib - the hook of a hive tool (stainless - not
painted) works well.
3 Chop out the entire comb.

For 2 & 3 the wax and granulated honey is heated to melt out the honey.
This can be done with a heated uncapping tank or tray, in buckets in a
warming cabinet, or using a purpose made heated tank such as that sold by
Swienty.

Some commercial beekeepers in the UK allow all the rape crop to granulate in
the comb and then deal with it later (perhaps during the following winter),
using starter strips of unwired foundation to make it easier to cut out the
comb.  Leaving a small strip at the top of the frame will then provide a
starter for next time.

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