Storing Drawn Frames in Winter for the Hobbyist

[okbees]

To a hobbyist I recommed to use a large plastic barrel. They are cheap, less than $15, and hold 10 Deep frames and 20 Medium frames at one time. By closing up the lid you keep out the wax moths, and other pests and you have easy access to frames as you need them, or as you need to apply more moth crystals. Take a look and I hope this helps out some other beeks out there. https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/OK...38788096176625

[rlsiv]

I'd caution that the wax moth eggs are present in virtually every hive, but a strong bee colony keeps them in check. So taking the frames of comb and sticking them in a sealed barrel isn't going to prevent eggs from hatching and munching your frames all to trash. You'd need to "pre-treat" the frames either by freezing or physcially treating with BT, etc before storing them in the barrel.

[okbees]

With thousands of extracted frames we have to use Moth Crystals, like in the pictures, on our supers that are stored and sealed up. We don't have that large of a freezer available to freeze our frames. This was an example for the hobbyist who only has a couple of hives.

[rweakley]

And for a hobbyist it's probably just as easy to spray each frame with BT put it back in the box and then make sure the top and bottom are secured from mice. Done, no harsh chemicals, no need to air out before using, and perhaps some residual protection for following years. I don't keep track of which frames have been sprayed I just spray them if they are coming off the hive for winter.