Liquifying honey

[guatebee]

Buckets and other 5 gl containers with cristallized honey. Hot water bath too slow and hard on wall contacting honey while cold on the nucleus. Any suggestions on how to handle these containers without damaging honey?
Small operation cannot invest in sophisticated equipment; rather build or adapt.

Thanks.

[iddee]

100 watt bulb in old refrigerator or similar size container.

[Jeffzhear]

Iddee, how long does it take?

[iddee]

Never timed it. I just leave it in the refer with the light plugged into an ac thermostat set at it's highest setting for a few days. Some have said they use an electric heater in a small closet or other room with the same type thermostat for larger quantities. I've never had more than one or two buckets at a time.

[Gregory and Susan Fariss]

100 watt bulb in old refrigerator or similar size container.

That's almost exactly what my husband and I have. Greg took an old chest freezer and wired it for two light bulbs and a thermostat. Then he put a raised wooden framed bottom into it so that the buckets have a place to sit about a foot above the light bulbs and so the heat from the light bulbs can rise through the spaces in the wooden frame. It holds six buckets at a time and has room for jars of honey in between the buckets. It takes about a week or two to liquify the buckets of honey, depending on how much had crystalized.

Susan

[honeyman46408]

I hav an old freg that I use with a 150 watt bulb hooked to a wall dimer switch to control the temp monetored by a degital thermostat, I also have a duct fan to circulate the air because the air temp will vary by 20 degrees form top to bottom, I heat the box to no more than 120 degrees and acording to how hard the honeys is it will become liquid in 2 to 3 days. I can do 2 5 gal buckets at a time.