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cleaning bees from deadout

2K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Acebird 
#1 ·
How can i get the dead bees out of their cells without damaging the comb ? i thought about a shopvac with the brush on the end ?
they are a bit stuck in the cells and a bee brush doesn't take them out and tapping them on them ground only breaks the comb .

I am getting packages and didn't want them to have to do a lot of work once installed

Ben
 
#2 ·
I had moderate success last year with a shop vac and brush going back and forth gently.
I also had some success with blowing a bit of compressed air across the frame with a slight angle toward the frame face.....but that was tricky to dial in enough pressure to pop them free but not so much as to tear the comb apart.
Ultimately I just got the bulk of easy ones out and followed everyone's advice to let the bees take care of the one "tucked in"
 
#4 ·
I don't worry about it all that much. Just pulled apart a dead out (which was alive until two weeks ago...uggh). I yank the frames and tap them against the side of the box. Unless I have a damaged frame or really bad comb, it all gets put back together and the new bees do the cleaning for me.
 
#5 ·
I hold the frame so one side of the comb is facing down and then lightly tap the top bar and or bottom bar with the back of the hive tool and most just fall out. Repeat for the other side. I didn't worry about getting them all out.
I wonder how many would get pulled out if you threw a box of them on top of another hive for a couple of days.
 
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