>As for keeping it around, what beekeeper ever throws anything out?

It has been my experience few beekeepers overcome the hoarding instinct. My
parents came through the depression and were of the mindset of only tossing
or burning things when of no value to you or others.

Most beekeepers will hoard even bee equipment of little value (needs serious
time consuming repair) until you have little room to walk through the
storage area.( personal experience)

The change came in my life when I picked up a large  outfit (without live
bees) which had been in storage
for 20 years in a barn.

We brought trailer load after trailer load to my
storage shed. Then one of my partners ( three of us went together to buy the
outfit at auction) died. His widow asked me to buy his third. His third went
outside under tarps. With running my own operation it took me three years to
go through all the equipment. My help spent hours redoing equipment and
painting. Many perfect looking boxes blew out in three years.

The other beekeeper (partner in the auction) repaired most of his equipment
and I later purchased which was cheaper than my doing the repair but old
equipment ( 20 years) even some new all kept inside blows out quicker than
new.

When finished I decided to never boil another frame. Not to buy a similar
outfit again unless newer equipment. Even then it took several burns to
complete the job.

I once was in the building of a large beekeeper in Kansas. I had agreed to
buy a trailer load of his honey supers advertised in ABJ very cheap for a
set price on the condition I got to pick through his stock. If you are the
buyer the only way to go if you can spare the time to look over the supers.
With empty supers
not a big deal as he would bring a pallet and I would sit the supers I did
not want off on another pallet. I culled heavily as I could see he had
plenty to chose from. ( smile for me & frown for the seller)

. If the seller not the best way to go.

Before we get started the commercial beekeeper took me to an area of over
3000 supers. He said all these needed a repair of one kind or the other. He
said he would fill my order with these for half the price of the others. No
picking but simply taking as they come.

What do you think I did?

I took the ready to go on the hives (picking the best) for another three
dollars a super.  He said later most beekeepers take the culls and regret
later and laughed.
 He admitted the add was to get a beekeeper interested in supers to look and
maybe buy from his stack of repair supers.

We both laughed and I left with some  nice supers cheap!

bob

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