Hi Ken, good to hear from you.
Yes, the moths are a frustrating problem, moreso for you down in MO and
other more southern areas.
 
>        The last two years I have had trouble with waxmoths.  I use the
>crystals at every 5-6 super.  Still have some moths to get in and sure
>makes me sick.  I leave them stacked in a shed beside the big barn that
>is open on the north side.
 
Sounds like a good protected place.  Hmm.  I wonder if there is so much air
movement that the moth crystals are evaporating too fast.  When I kept
supers in my basement I put a paper plate on about every 3rd or 4th super,
and sprinkled some crystals on, covering them with a paper towel.  As I
recall, I had to repeat the treatment sometime in January.
 
Maybe you could try stacking the supers in a tighter place, and use the
crystals more, say every 4-5 supers instead.  Then check in a couple months
to see how much of them has disappeared.
 
 
>        I normally put the supers back on the hives and let them clean
>them up so when I go to scraping it is not a mess on ME.
 
When I was storing the supers in the house I would set them out after
extracting and the bees would go nuts cleaning them all up.  Then they were
nice and dry.  I might do that now but don't have any bees here at the
house to do the work.
Moving the supers out to the bee yards would be more work.  However, one
old-timer did tell me that it is a good idea to store the supers at the
apiaries after extracting.  That way next spring they are right where you
need them and you don't have to worry about driving thru the mud.  He built
long stands covered with hardware cloth (1/4" mesh, against mice) to hold
tight stacks of supers, and put a lid across, jacked up somewhat to keep
air moving thru.  You get the idea anyway.  The bees could get right in
there easily to clean up, and the constant air flow (and cold) foiled the
moths.
 
 
>        Only seen three swarms last year.
 
Yes swarms are quite a novelty anymore.  A few years ago I had some nasty
brood combs in a stack of supers which were not being used.  It was maybe
end of May and I opened the stack to find wax worms all thru them, starting
to make a real mess.  Well, I didn't know if it would help, but I put some
moth crystals in there.  A few weeks later a swarm actually showed up and
moved into that stack!  They were obviously confused by the moth crystal
fumes (!!) so I set a clean hive right there and they went right in.  Those
bees must have been pretty desperate for a place to live!
>>
>> Why do you want to store the combs out of the hive bodies?  Wonder if it
>>is the moths that are of concern.
>
>        Moths were the big thing.
>        I am the one that lost 28 hives last year when I tried
>Wintergreen Oil.  I was told that I started to late but I don't think
>the stuff is as good as it is suppose to be.  ( that is my opinion)
 
Haven't tried the oil myself, yet anyway.  Sorry to hear of your losses.  I
hope you can get things built back up this coming season.
 
 
Best wishes,
 Joel Govostes        Freeville, NY