>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?  

Like you, we work with a honey cap to maintain the queen in the bottom three
boxes (3/4 depth currently, though we're moving to full depth brood boxes
with 3/4 honeys).  Yes, it generally works.  I have only one hive out of
fifty this year that hasn't played by the rules and has brood through four
boxes - that queen will be knocked on the head in spring, as were two last
year for the same sin.

I let the bees clean out extracted boxes before storing, so they go away dry
instead of sticky.  Clean honey comb we have previously just stacked in our
shed with a hive mat on top and bottom to seal out mice/roaches/wax moths.
As long as they are put away dry they are fine - mold was a problem on a
stack that got rain-wet before being stored last year, but the bees still
cleaned them up in spring.

For the broody comb (and this means anything with more than a dozen brood
cells in it) we have a domestic chest freezer that lets us freeze three 3/4
boxes at a time.  (We also use it for storing propolis and freezing mats, so
it's in use year round).  The boxes are frozen for 24 hours to kill any eggs
and larvae, and then we stack - a couple of 2x4s to lift the hive mat off
the floor, and then the boxes, with a double layer of newspaper between each
second box.  Most boxes are still in vg condition, so no taping required,
but we certainly would if we had any actual open gaps.  Top is sealed with a
couple of layers of newspaper, a hive mat, and a heavy weight to seal it.
Boxes are stacked immediately on coming out of the freezer - they are not
allowed to defrost or warm up, so they don't get re-infested between stages.
The theory on the newspaper was that if something did get in it wouldn' be
able to travel far, but somehow it seems the newspaper allows the stack to
breath a little too - just seems better off than if boxes are just stacked
direct.
 
Here in NZ PDB has been off the menu for a few years now, at least the five
that we've been in the game, so no, no treatments at all.

This is in our barely-standing old shed which is mostly rainproof, but
nowhere near to vermin proof and has reasonable airflow if there's any
breeze at all (thanks to the holes in walls and missing window).  So a bit
more protected than outdoors.  Last year, however, we bought a shipping
container which is weather and largely bug-proof, so much better storage
from now on (I do wonder if we won't miss the air circulation of the old
shed though). 

Deadouts or damaged comb to be replaced, we cut out the comb straight away
and it goes into a rubbish bag and into the freezer.  After a day or two in
the freezer (longer than the boxes of comb, because this will include thick
areas of pollen-filled comb and comb that has been compressed and needs a
bit longer to freeze through), it can come out and as long as the plastic
bag is kept sealed it won't be reinfested and we can put it aside until we
get round to running a melt - could be a couple of months.  It doesn't need
to be a full clean down of the frames at that stage - we just whip round the
inside of the frame with a knife, slice alongside the wires and whip out the
comb.  What little wax and debris is still in the frame edges isn't enough
to support the wax moth larvae and we can leave these boxes for months at
that point.

Our winters are very mild here - we get a few months of wax moth knockback,
but we have no snow and only a couple of degrees below freezing for a few
hours with spring frosts.


>I do not use queen excluders either.  I  seem to get better  overall
production without the queen excluder and lower my  cost.   

For sure.  A large commercial guy I know here was involved in some research
a while ago that trialled various management methods with queen excluders
though, and the key is to use a top entrance with the queen excluder, in
which case production is at least as good or possibly (from memory)
marginally better than without.  Of course a drone/queen exit is still
needed from the brood nest as well as the top entrance above the excluder.

>My philosophy is to give the queen as much room as she needs to lay  in.
It seems to delay swarming by a bit.

Ours too.  That's why we're moving from an all 3/4 operation to full depths
for brood.  For most queens it seems we could get a good honey cap and still
enough brood room in 2 full depths vs 3 x 3/4, but if a queen runs to a
third box because she's just that strong it's not a major. On the other
hand, if she runs to a third or higher because she's just a pain-in-the-neck
climber and produces a disorganized hive, her days are numbered.

Regards
Deanna Corbett
Dee's Bees

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