I have a freezer full of frames, freeze it if you have a chest freezer.
Lost hives - How to store honey over winter to restart in Spring?
Hi,
I am looking for some help. My husband and I had bees in TN, but ended up selling them when we moved to PA. Last Spring, we started over, but got started late. Our bees then got varroa mites. We hadn't dealt with them before and didn't treat as soon as we probably should have. Long story short, we lost both our hives.
My question is this... there is a good amount of capped honey in each hive, but it was in there when we treated with Apivar. We can't use the honey for ourselves, but we would like to save it for when we start with two new packages of bees in the Spring.
What is the best way to store it? Currently, the hives are still just out in the yard, but we don't want to leave them there for skunks or something to get into them.
Also, would there be any reason NOT to give this honey to new bees?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!
I am looking for some help. My husband and I had bees in TN, but ended up selling them when we moved to PA. Last Spring, we started over, but got started late. Our bees then got varroa mites. We hadn't dealt with them before and didn't treat as soon as we probably should have. Long story short, we lost both our hives.
My question is this... there is a good amount of capped honey in each hive, but it was in there when we treated with Apivar. We can't use the honey for ourselves, but we would like to save it for when we start with two new packages of bees in the Spring.
What is the best way to store it? Currently, the hives are still just out in the yard, but we don't want to leave them there for skunks or something to get into them.
Also, would there be any reason NOT to give this honey to new bees?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
Agree, I have a freezer full too. And you can feed those frames to the bees with no worries. Deb
Why put them in the freezer when it's below freezing outside.
Cleanout the dead bee and screen entrances to keep out mice and ants.
In CT I don't see any wax moth damage until end of May so they will be fine outside until you get your pkgs installed.
Try to get early pkgs and if you are in a good location you should get honey crop.
Cleanout the dead bee and screen entrances to keep out mice and ants.
In CT I don't see any wax moth damage until end of May so they will be fine outside until you get your pkgs installed.
Try to get early pkgs and if you are in a good location you should get honey crop.
My reasoning is there are very smart mice around here they chew into my hives right around screened/hardware cloth entrances. I did stack some supers of unused honey in the detached garage but many crystallized, so hence the freezer for me. Mike Palmer shared a tip, if you put a box of crystallized honey on the bottom of the hive, the bees take care of it, which I tried with a deep, and it worked. It took them a while though.
Welcome to Beesource JAR15. In addition to the screen in front, I would wrap a ratchet strap around each hive to prevent curious critters from opening things up. No need to worry about small hive beetles and wax moths when it is freezing outside.
Deb, the mice around here are pretty smart too. They skip the beehives and go straight for the house. Mouse traps are cheap though.
Deb, the mice around here are pretty smart too. They skip the beehives and go straight for the house. Mouse traps are cheap though.
Yes, smart skinny mice, maybe an oxymoron? 
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
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