In a message dated 3/6/2011 8:31:35 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

> I  don't use excluders, but combs with any brood debris in them are 
sorted  
> out and frozen for 24 hours before being stacked separately.  

How and where do you stack the combs with brood debris such that wax  moths 
do not reinfest the comb? I am assuming you tape the joints shut when you  
stack them such that the wax moths cannot reinfest the supers?  Do you use  
PDB?  
 
I do not use queen excluders either.  I  seem to get better  overall 
production without the queen excluder and lower my  cost.   I run a deep and 
medium as my brood chamber / food  chamber and rely mainly on a band of honey to 
keep the queen out of the honey  supers.  Sometimes this does not work but 
in most cases a deep/medium  configuration is large enough for the queen to 
lay in.  Some queens do lay  right up the middle. I stack supers with brood 
debris, after extracting what  frames I am going to extract, on top of other 
strong colonies until autumn  / winter and it is cold enough to kill the wax 
moths.  For disease control,  I try to place wet supers back on the 
colonies they came off of.
 
My philosophy is to give the queen as much room as she needs to lay  in.  
It seems to delay swarming by a bit.
 
You are certainly correct about wax moths leaving white wax  alone. I guess 
that was what Chris Slade was alluding to with the queen  excluder 
recommendation.   Dead-outs are another issue.
 
Thanks,
Dave M.
 
 


             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm