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What to do with old frames full of honey?

3K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  Joe Allen 
#1 ·
One of my best friends moved, and just sold his house. The buyers were freaking out because he still had a hive (just two deeps) in the back yard. The hive froze out last winter, and due to his moving, he never did anything with it. He called me and said I could have it if I removed it right away. I brought it home last night. It looked like yellow jackets had built a nest inside, based on the buzzing and a LOT of traffic in and out. I sprayed soapy water in the entrance, and when I broke the hive open I found a lot of dead wasps, but no nest. Would they use the existing comb instead of a nest? Seems unlikely to me. The top super is still FULL of honey. The bottom is pretty picked over. some of the honey looks good, but the hive smells fermented.

What should I do with these frames? I'm tempted to just leave them out near (but not too close) to my two existing hives. Do I need to be concerned about the residue from the soapy water? (it was Gain dish soap) Or can I just drop the full frames right into my existing hives?

Thanks for the advice.

Joe
 
#4 ·
Before allowing your hives to rob the honey, I would make sure that your existing hives have the available comb to store 10 or more frames of robbed honey. You could wind up with two honey- bound hives at a time of year when your bees can still swarm. Perhaps consider deep freezing the frames and feeding the honey a frame or two at a time
 
#5 ·
No the wasps wont use the nest, they will however avail themselves of the honey.
Why rob? Put the full frames in your hives. If you have empty frames, replace with his full ones.
Completely pointless to rob, and once it starts you will have bees that aren't yours joining in the fun.
 
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