> I have put old supers and sticky supers above the innercover for the bees to
> clean up.  They will eventually clean them if they can.  Some crystallized honey
> gets so hard that they just don't want to clean them.  I read somewhere(maybe
> this list) that if you place the supers under the brood chamber, it will get
> cleaned much faster although the combs will get travel stained.
 
Late in the producing season boxes with frames of mostly unsealed
honey can be a nuisance, as can frames of crystallised honey.  NZ
beekeepers I have worked for will sometimes put such frames in a
super above the brood nest, but with a piece of sacking (burlap) that
is about 50mm (2") smaller on each side than the hive size.  That is,
there is a 50mm gap all around to allow the bees 'up' into the super.
 But since the cluster can't/won't move up through the middle, the
bees just seem to go up to get the stores and repack it around the
broodnest.  (Note that you should scrape the cappings on any
crystallised honey, or even patches of ordinary sealed honey, else
they won't move them).
 
Then the next visit back, you can take away the empty and clean
super, and know that the hive has put the stores where the bees can
best get at it in the winter.  Remember to do this after honey has
pretty much stopped coming in, but before it is too cold for the bees
to readily re-pack the stores for winter.
 
  (\      Nick Wallingford
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