View Full Version : can I salvage comb???
sc-bee
08-09-2005, 01:40 AM
Comb I removed from shb hive-shallows that may have begun to ferment after freezing can I add back to hive or leave outside to see if bees will use or how do I clean up for use again? Or are the shallows of honey usless?
newbee 101
08-09-2005, 07:05 PM
Is is capped? From what I read here, you can feed fermented honey to the bees. I don't know if I would. Maybe if you uncap it, the bees will eat it, catch a "buzz" from the alchol, and spit it back in the hive, as good as new. :D
If it was infested with small hive beetle, maybe you smell that.
You don't mention how many shallows of the foul honey you have, but...
You could leave them near the apiary and let the bees rob them out. However, this can stimulate robbing in some situations. Also, if fresh nectar is available in the field, the bees might just ignore the old honey.
IMO a safer approach would be to scratch the cappings very lightly -- you don't have to be too thorough - and set each shallow super at the bottom of a hive (on the floor, below the brood chamber). The bees will re-work the nasty honey and move it up in the hive, provisioning it for winter. Early next spring, before the colony builds up, you can remove the empty shallow and it is ready for them to use as a honey super again when needed.
I had half a dozen deeps of fermenting honey from dead-outs last winter that I just added as second brood chamber to some singles I started this spring. They smelled pretty sour. The bees quickly cleaned them up, and I didn't notice any effects of inebriation. redface.gif )