Last year was not a good honey producing year for me. My area had more rain than usual, my hives swarmed alot, plus health kept me from doing as should. Not to mention 2/3 of my bees range was sprayed which was a few large acreage tracks of land sprayed for various reasons that surrounded me, just all happened to occur at same time. So I did not harvest any honey after spring. Not that they had much but they did have a medium full. I always leave for them and I never touch. Summer dearth came but they maintained their supplies. Usually in fall I get another harvest from golden rod and rag weed. Not last year due to the lands being sprayed. Anyway, my bees still had their medium supers full.
Im in Georgia and all fall and winter we have had besutiful warm spells. Still winter, nothing blooming but long warm spells. My bees would work like crazy all day and be processing "honey". ,(baffled) I had one hive die off in Dec-Jan. It was a weak hive for a while but when I went in to clean out after the die off they had their entire brood deep full of "nectar" uncapped (still baffled). I disposed of all that and because what was capped had been beetle slimed.
Ok, now February....bees had still been working and processing like mad. (Still baffled). Had another hive die off. Same thing. Brood deep full of "nectar " and white crystals. Hmmmm.
They had two mediums full of capped. Thinking from last year and not being slimed I decided to harvest. Turned out real thin honey. 2 weeks later (now) all that honey bottled is now crystalized sugar.
Discovered.....neighhor (really new beek) harvested all his bees honey, and has had a 5 gallon bucket with sugar syrupfeeding publicly all fall and winter to feed his bees (he does not want to feed internally) and he enjoys watching all the bees come to the feeder.
So, now I have 8 hives, consists of deep and two mediums each full of syrup. Mixed in with what good honey was/is there. What does one do?
I cant process and sell it.
I can't take it all off and leave my bees nothing.
I can't leave it on and let contaminate this up coming honey.
What do others do and how to rectify?
As you all know, alot of hard work and time and money is all bad now.