Dealing with a dead TBH

[BerkeyDavid]

Hi all.

Well I opened up one of my dead TBH's last weekend. Found lots of honey and a pile of dead bees in the middle of the hive.

I am guessing it was the cold and smaller size of this TBH that did them in, as the biggest one is still strong. plus I had the entrance hole at one end, probably bigger than it should have been, permitting the strong prairie winds to sweep right through.

There was comb on every single top bar. even at the entrance there was white wax comb, like a curtain, that extended almost the full depth.

I removed about 60 pounds of honey and comb.

Any reason not to consume it? Sure does taste good!

I salvaged about 15 one pound packages of comb honey and crushed the rest. I was thinking about feeding the rest. Should I water it down?

I left some comb out for the other hives to eat, they started robbing what I spilled from cutting off the comb almost immediately.

I am thinking about moving this old hive out 200 - 500 yards away and maybe using it as a swarm attraction.

Any thoughts?

I have one other hive to open up that I think is dead. There were / are some bees flying in and out but I think they are just robbing it.

[Michael Bush]

>Any reason not to consume it? Sure does taste good!

You didn't treat with anything did you? If not, it's edible.

[BerkeyDavid]

no treatments

[mhorowit]

The frames which weren't mostlly honey... as it takes a lot of nectar to build a wax comb, anyway to salvage/re-use, thus giving the new guys a head start? - Mike

[SantaFeBeek]

Tie them into empty frames or melt them onto empty topbars to give the bees a head start.