Charles wrote:
> I can go on if you have specific questions....
Thank you for sharing your real world experience. As I mentioned in a post earlier this year, I'm starting to see SHB in my apiary here in New Hampshire. They are definitely overwintering. I have a number of empty boxes with drawn frames in the yard that are handy to grab for one thing or another. On the advice of others here, I left the boxes out stacked crisscross, so the sun, rain, etc. would get in. Did not see a problem with SHB. However, I store other boxes in a stall in one of my barns and have a stack of deeps, some old, some because this year I moved from three deeps to two. Rummaging around in there this summer I did find a couple of boxes that were full of old SHB webbing, no evidence of active SHB. This stall is also where I store my empty supers.
Last weekend I FINALLY extracted supers, having gotten off the crutches and out of the boot for my broken foot. While pulling supers I found a few SHB hiding in the cracks between some of the supers or in the corners. Looked to me like the bees were keeping them in check. After extracting I moved the boxes around, now full of empty frames, and several beetles ran out, many of which I was able to squish on the concrete floor (with much satisfaction). So, now I'm concerned about how to store those empties. They will be going out to the yard this weekend for the bees to clean them up, but after that....? Can I put them back in the barn (wood floor over dirt), or should I just stack them up in the honey house (which is really my garage with a large open area in the back, where I extract) on concrete? If in the barn, are there additional precautions I can take, things you have done that work for you? Both spaces are unheated. My guess is, now that the weather has finally cooled down a little (was in the 90'sF/33+C earlier this week, but currently 46F/8C) as we head into real fall, that SHB will slow down. But, I'm concerned about what will happen come spring. Any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Distilling all of that down to a simple question: How do you store empty supers to minimize damage from SHB? So far, I haven't had to deal with wax moths, but that's probably gonna change, too.
Thanks,
Bill
Claremont, NH
New England US
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