This has been an interesting thread and once again emphasizes that 'all
beekeeping is local'.

It just never occured to me that a large beekeeping operation such as Dee's
might put wet supers back on hives when no flow was anticipated for several
months.  Of course, I am used to 6 months without a flow and extreme cold
and I am certain those conditions do not apply to Dee's operation.

We also frequently (every year?) have a long summer period where there is
little to no flow and the bees will take honey from supers for themselves
and brood and, without excluders, the queen will make use of that space to
produce brood.  Given the length of the brood cycle, that would lead to many
frames with partial brood.  Of course, if we practiced beekeeping as in the
UK we would be smart enough to take our honey frame by frame, rather than
entire supers at a time.  That would let us leave frames with brood behind,
but make it impractical to run several hundred hives with one person.

I also never thought about SHB's and wet supers in storage.  Like others who
contributed to this thread, in this part of the world wax moth is only a
minor pest (because of our long cold winters) and in any case using
excluders severely limits the attractiveness of the combs.  But apparently
this is not true with SHB.  I was not aware that they were after nectar, and
would have thought that they were principally after the protein in the
larvae cocoons, the larvae themselves, and pollen.  Sure glad I don't live
in Alabama!

Lloyd
--
Lloyd Spear
Owner Ross Rounds, Inc.
Manufacture of equipment for round comb honey sections,
Sundance Pollen Traps, and producer of Sundance custom labels.
Contact your dealer or www.RossRounds.com

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