I have set mine out in stacks for a few days--it turns into a bee,yellow jacket, hornet world war and the comb gets chewed up pretty bad. I tried stacking them upside down on top of the hives with the queen excluder in place--I was told that they would not use them to continue storing upsdie down as the combs slant downward. That did not work as well as I thought but maybe I did not give'm enough time.
I stager stack them outside in stacks of 10 on pallets that have solid sheets of plywood on the top. They are dry in a couple of days and are moved back inside. The pallets collects all the wax chips. they are swept up and put in the melter
Similar to what I did once in that you let the insects have free access correct? I have to say they did get 100% cleaned out that year. Stacked on top of hives upside down did not do what I was told--in my case. It seemed like they did store or at least maintain the stores.
I don't let them clean them out any more. I put them away wet and take them out wet the next spring. The bees move right in and generally have all of the cells in perfect condition in one or two days.
After extracting, put the wet frames back in the box. Put the box (super) back on the hive but ON TOP of the inner cover. Leave for two days........ the bees do a great job of cleaning them of residue honey.
I think I'll try that idea. I have some wooden inner covers with the hand hole. Setting them out does create a mess out of the comb and I never considered the spread of problems. My wife will be happier if I don't stick 90 frames in the freezer for 10 months too. I'm confident using moth flakes etc..., but it's getting them cleaned and dried first that is still a challenge.
I have been putting ours back on wet after the summer flow. Then after the late flow, if we get one I stack them out crisscross so the sun can shine down inside and let the bees clean it up. So far so good.. I am guessing that is best for my area.. Learned it from Don - "FatBeeMan"
There's a lot of goldenrod here and kind of a fall flow. But sometime in the fall I'll probably need to treat for mites. It seems like there's a lot to do and not enough time. So I wonder about keeping supers on until Labor Day or so before treating, or if that's too late to treat for mites. I got kind of a late jump on things this year, so everything is beind.
Last year I put a couple of supers on top of the inner cover and the dumb bees filled them up with honey. Sometimes it seems like I just can't win. I guess that's called getting an education.
I am planning on harvesting within the next couple of weeks. If there is still a lot of clover in bloom then I'd like to see if they'll put more honey in the extracted frames. So to try to get more honey should I just put the empty frames back into the supers just as they were prior to harvesting?
Hi rmdurkin ..... it's something I learned from this forum. I tried it, and it works ....at least for me. IMO if it works, I am not going to mess with it.
Just in case there is any disease whatsoever (foul brood) in your apiary - putting the stickies back on the hive from which they came to be cleaned will help prevent spreading anything around. Leaving them in the open to be robbed by the general population does the exact opposite - and is technically illegal in my state. Just saying.
In the summer we remove the super(s), extract & immediately put the super(s) with wet frames back on. Bees immediately clean the frames and start to refill them.
In the fall, we stack the frames close to the hive (elevated to keep critters out; cross stacked during the day - normal at night). Our theory is that if we put them on the hive the bees will try to refill them rather than get ready for winter.
Just curious, but if I put them in large trash bags and then into an air tight freezer in my shop, which is 9 feet off the ground (I neglected to mention I live in a stilt home), how would the SHB even find them, let alone get into the freezer.
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