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Author Topic: How long to leave for cleaning?  (Read 4296 times)

Offline leominsterbeeman

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« on: September 21, 2005, 12:44:03 pm »
I have but my extracted supers ontop of  the inner cover for the bees to clean out.  How long can these supers stay so the bees can clean them out and still be protected from wax moths?  If i leave them for a few weeks will the wax moth invade them and ruin the frames.  All of the colonies are strong.
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Offline thegolfpsycho

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2005, 01:27:52 pm »
I leave them on until we get freezing temps overnight.  Then stack them in the shed.  The colonys are usually very strong and I haven't had any problems so far.  It might be different if they have a foothold in the colonys before you put them up, but I've been lucky and haven't seen any moth damage in 3 years.  A freind a few miles away is in constant struggle with them.

Offline Michael Bush

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2005, 04:40:15 pm »
I agree.  I leave them on for the bees to protect until it's freezing at night and then pull them off and let winter protect them.
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Offline Jay

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2005, 06:34:53 pm »
I agree as well, especially since your colonys are strong. They are in a good position to keep the moths at bay. :D
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Their flag to Aprils breeze unfurled
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Offline jdesq

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Problem
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2005, 11:12:30 am »
I put extracted supers on top of 2 of my hives and soon had a war going on between the honey bees and yellow jckets and wasps. I closed down the entrances to winter mode. I went away for the weekend and when I got back every bee in both of those hives were gone. What happened? I was extremely bummed out.

Offline Michael Bush

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2005, 11:46:42 am »
>every bee in both of those hives were gone. What happened?

Usually you have to watch for robbing.  It's not usually the wasps, at least not here.  I've never had YJ or wasps cause any real problems that the bees couldn't handle, but anytime you put wet supers on you need to minimize the entrances to prevent robbing.  Are the bees all dead?  If not then they must have absconded.
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Offline Jay

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2005, 11:52:40 am »
A friend of mine did the same thing. He put two supers on top of his brood nest, first placing the inner cover in between, then the top cover. However, he made the mistake of proping up his top cover (he thought he needed more ventilation for this, and of course this acted like a top entrance on the hive, and soon he had every honeybee in the neighborhood robbing out those supers!

Did you have any other means of entrance to the hive other than the main entrance where the guard bees are used to defending?

When you dry supers on the hive you need to set things up as you normally would any other time so the hive is tight against intruders and the only defence that needs to be made is at the normal hive entrance (wherever that is for your hives). The only difference is, you usually put the inner cover between the supers and the brood nest so the girls bring the excess honey down into the brood nest instead of begining to fill the supers again. :D
By the rude bridge that arched the flood
Their flag to Aprils breeze unfurled
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world
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Offline ConfedMarine

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2005, 09:02:56 am »
I extracted honey a couple of weeks ago and made the mistake of propping up all ten wet frames outside my hive. It only took two days for the frames to be cleaned, but I think robber bees got involved. On the ground around the hive was 30-40 dead bees. I have put the clean frames in my freezer for storage, is ok?
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Offline Michael Bush

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2005, 10:04:06 am »
They will keep fine in the freezer if you don't break them.  They will keep outside fine once a hard freeze kills the wax moths.  They will keep fine on top of the hive with the bees to protect them too.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
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Offline DBoire

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« Reply #9 on: October 22, 2005, 07:02:42 pm »
You want to store your dry supers?   OKay, put them in a large garbage bag with moth repelleant you purchase form bee supply shop.  Don't use walmarts stuff.  It's different.  I place two suppers in bag , add 2 or so tablespoons of moth repelleant on a piece of cardboard and twist tie garbage bag closed.  Repeat as neccessary.

Offline Apis629

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How long to leave for cleaning?
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2005, 09:45:29 pm »
Just to emphesize DBoir's statement, the walmart moth repelent has an active ingredient of Napethalene which is absorbed by the wax, can contaminate the honey through the wax and from there can cause all sorts of side effect to humans which consume honey from supers stored in this fashion (vomiting, liver failure, etc.)  The beekeeping supply moth repelent has an active ingredient of Paradichlorabenzene (don't ask me to say it... :lol: ).  This PDB isn't absorbed by the wax...just a little info for any NewBees out there.

Offline imabkpr

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Re: Problem
« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2005, 10:36:35 am »
Quote from: jdesq
I put extracted supers on top of 2 of my hives and soon had a war going on between the honey bees and yellow jckets and wasps. I closed down the entrances to winter mode. I went away for the weekend and when I got back every bee in both of those hives were gone. What happened? I was extremely bummed out.
                                                                                                  In the fall of the year after we extract the honey supers, and want the bees to dry them out we place them on hive storage stands. This way all the bees in the yard help dry the supers.  we have hed no individual colonies being robbed out. This way of drying supers will work for the smallest  and largest honey producers.  If you have a super or supers of honey full or otherwise that you don't want to extract, do not uncap, just place an inner cover above the brood chambers, sit the super to be dryed on top of it.  Replace the outer cover, your are done.   As you know you can get into trouble placing wet supers, to be dryed above inner covers when there is no nectar flows.

 

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