> If it was just a question of a small amount of fermented honey, that "might"
> not be a problem.  My experience here in Oregon (the wet part), is that the
> supers that do not get thoroughly cleaned by the bees end up developing a
> large amount of mold that slows down honey production since the bees have to
> clean it first and stains the combs in some cases.  Some combs have been so
> filled with mold and unsanitary looking, that I couldn't imagine eating
> honey that came from those combs, so melted them down and started over.
 
In NZ the experience is pretty much the same.  Most (but not all)
beekeepers prefer to 'dry' combs.  For commercial outfits, that
generally uses one of two methods:
 
(1) stacking extracted supers in an apiary and letting them be robbed
out.  This restricts the potential for AFB spread, but I can tell you
the apiary gets to know you!  They're waiting at the gate when your
truck arrives, and you can't get the supers off fast enough!
 
(2) stacking the supers on hives in one or more yards.  Better, but
still a hassle to do.  They only have to stay there a day or two
before they get 'licked out'.
 
I can't remember the name just now, but I *think* it was called a
'Johnson floor', a device I recall from an old NZ Journal of
Agriculture article.  It was basically a 'floor behind a floor'.
Imagine a normal floorboard, with an extra gap out the back - to
anothe floorboard, that doesn't have another other ins/outs.
 
So you can stack wet supers on the 'back' floorboard, and the only
access to them is from the hive on the front floorboard.  The idea
was that they would then be able to clean out the wet supers.  It
would be an easy matter to stack more boxes on/take boxes off without
disturbing the hive in any way.
 
I've never seen this used, as I say - only an article from the
(probably) 1940s or so...
 
  (\      Nick Wallingford
 {|||8-   home [log in to unmask]
  (/      work [log in to unmask]
NZ Beekeeping http://www.wave.co.nz/pages/nickw/nzbkpg.htm