Ron Rubert asked some interesting questions and I will be learning, as will
others, from the replies.  I will make a contribution to some of his
questions:
        "Again this year, after extracting, I put the wet supers back on a couple
of strong hives, having read that the bees will clean them and carry the
honey
below, leaving nice dry supers to store with PDB."
        Ron, you are putting the supers back too soon.  They should only be put
back on hives after the flows are over for the year.  In fact, after your
first hard killing frost.  After that date there are still plenty of days
when the temperatures are in the 60's and the bees will clean up the wet
supers and not move nectar into them.
        Better yet, just put the supers in your bee yard, not on a hive.  You can
do this any time, and the bees will rob them out.  I find two days is
sufficient to have nice dry comb.  Put them out without a top and you won't
have any problem with wax moth invading them.
        I store my supers wet (I put out sticky frames for the bees to clean after
I have taken cut-comb out of them) and do not use PDB.  I can get away with
this in my climate in upstate NY as wax moth is inactive from October 1
until around June 15 (if the combs are kept in a barn that is unheated).  I
have never heard about the crystallization potential and will be interested
in the comments of others.

        "Last winter I installed 3/8" hardware cloth across the entrances instead
of entrance reducers.  This seemed to work well and I would prefer to use it
on all hives instead of reducers.  The problem is that 3/8" hardware cloth
must not be manufactured these days."

Yep, 3/8" hardware cloth is 6 mesh and that is almost impossible to find any
more.  I use 1/2" hardware cloth for entrance reducers, and have never had a
problem.  If you have tiny mice, try 1/4", or 4 mesh.  Bees readily go
through it, and I don't believe that any mice could possibly get through.
The advantage of 1/2" is that drones can get through it, but they can't get
through 1/4".  That means the 1/2" can be left on all year, while the 1/4"
cannot.

Hope this helps,


Lloyd
Lloyd Spear, Owner, Ross Rounds, Inc.  The finest in comb honey production.
www.rossrounds.com