Glen said:
Any tricks to getting the bees to clean that out so I can freeze and store
the frames?
This time of year the bees clean up whatever I set outside. This time of
year the closest yard is a mile
away. The bees are here at first light and leave at dusk.
Saves me a hell of a lot of work.
Once the bees have cleaned the equipment I move outside with the
forklift I power wash the equipment outside .
With a few pieces removed the remaining area cleans easier and quicker.
certain
pieces are to awkward to move but I find being able to move a few pieces
makes the clean up go faster and easier.
Instead of putting your supers on the hive Glen simply sit the supers enough
of a
distance from the hives to prevent robbing and if no flow on you should get
cleaned quickly. Robbing does tear comb a bit.
I leave my supers as they come from the processing area. Not wet (like with
a hand extractor) but fairly dry from high speed extraction. The bees
quickly move into these type of supers when placed on bees at start of the
honey flow. In other words the bees get used quickly to queen excluders
getting the film of left over honey.
I use queen excluders as brood comb in supers is a pain.
I think the bees would clean your supers up above the brood nest *if* no
honey is coming in. Sounds like the girls are still bringing in some fall
nectar.
Many ways to keep bees.
bob
I try to rotate so all supers are used at least every other year. The last
two years we have been returning supers after extracting the first round.
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