A friend of the family recently gave me his two Dadant hive setups, his bee clothes, and gear. One hive is brand new and the other was been sitting unused for many years. The used hive was of course full of remnants of an epic wax month infestation, so I've started scraping the boxes clean and scorching them. I don't have access to a barrel to do a lye or OA bath. Any frames that were rotted or gross went in the trash. At this point I'm trying to figure out how to save what's left. Among other things, I'd like to honor the gift from this very nice older gentleman by not throwing away more than absolutely necessary.
Here's the charred deep - will the bees use it if it's this burnt?:
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A medium that needs a little more scraping, cleaning, and painting:
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These boxes and frames are in good shape structurally, still have their foundation, but have some wax moth cocoons on them:
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Some kind of heavy duty plastic bottom. Structurally sound, but stained from WM poop/debris (has a telescoping lid from the same pastic):
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In addition, he gave me 2 boxes of drawn honey frames. These were kept in his barn after extracting and are wax moth-free. The top bars in one box look propolis-stained or dirty. One or two have spider webs from me keeping them under a tarp on the patio:
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Is scraping and torching sufficient? Is there a way to clean up the honey frames without destroying the comb? Can I save the frames with old foundation if I trash the foundation?
Here's the charred deep - will the bees use it if it's this burnt?:
A medium that needs a little more scraping, cleaning, and painting:
These boxes and frames are in good shape structurally, still have their foundation, but have some wax moth cocoons on them:
Some kind of heavy duty plastic bottom. Structurally sound, but stained from WM poop/debris (has a telescoping lid from the same pastic):
In addition, he gave me 2 boxes of drawn honey frames. These were kept in his barn after extracting and are wax moth-free. The top bars in one box look propolis-stained or dirty. One or two have spider webs from me keeping them under a tarp on the patio:
Is scraping and torching sufficient? Is there a way to clean up the honey frames without destroying the comb? Can I save the frames with old foundation if I trash the foundation?
