made a mess of my comb....

[EasttexTim]

Hi all,
ok, I decided that I wanted some honey. Since I have not set up all my extracting eqpt.(still just trying to learn bees at this point)I was told to simply uncap and drain with a sharp knife. Uhmm...gulp...WHAT A MESS! I managed to ruin frame after frame of perfect comb. I am mad at myself- I shoulda' just gone to the darn grocery store and bought some honey.
Ok, the question...I now have a bunch of ruined frames- some damage is massive, like right down to the foundation. Others? Well...uneven comb at best. Can I pop these back into my supers? I have a lot of hives that refuse to draw any out. I want to bait these hives up into the supers that they seem to ignore for the up-comming fall flow. Should I lay out all these wrecked frames to be cleaned up first BEFORE I put them into the hives(still lots of honey in them) or will it be ok to let the hive itself clean them from within? My instinct tells me this might cause robbing. OR(!) have I simply wrecked these frames and it is my tough luck. Will the bees turn up their noses at this damaged comb?
A related question- do bees ever re-use wax? Like, if I were to lay out all the mess I made, cappings ect. will they be picked up or will they just become moth chow?
Thanks!
Tim

[JohnK and Sheri]

The bees LOVE those wet frames. Put them right back in the supers and within a little while they will be as good as new.
They will not reuse the wax, but you can. You can melt the wax with a little water and when it cools you will have a nice little chunk of beeswax.
Sheri

[EasttexTim]

Thanks Sheri...they bees will still use the damaged comb? It is not just uncapped it is..messed up. Can they rebuild using this mess I have made?

[JohnK and Sheri]

They will fix it right up, you won't be able to tell the difference. The less damage you do the better, in that they don't have to spend the energy fixing it, but they are quite capable of rebuilding it just like new.
sheri

[Hobie]

In the class I took, the instructor showed us how to use a capping scratcher to remove the cappings, instead of a knife. It takes longer (uh, well, longer than uncapping with a knife when it goes well, I guess...), but you have more control. You start at one corner and kind of shovel the cappings off across the frame, and then do the next strip, etc.

Disclaimer: I am a newbie and have never harvested honey. Looked easy when the instructor did it.

[ August 25, 2006, 07:26 AM: Message edited by: Hobie ]

[ScadsOBees]

It also depends on the foundation. If you are using duragilt and pulled away the wax from the shiny smooth plastic, then they will repair what is still attached, but not where there is bare plastic.

Any other type of foundation (ritecell, peirco, wax foundation, etc,) you should be all set.

I use a sharp knife too to uncap, but it is a finely serrated knife so the edge doesn't get blunted by a layer of wax so quick.

-rick