I was hoping to be able to store all of those extra frames safely on top of the hives until the new nucs were ready for them, but that sounds like it won't work due to pests, and not enough bees to cover/protect the frames.
OK, so I took the leap and found a steal on a chest freezer on Craigslist today, so now I'm ready to freeze a lot of the the frames for storage.
Question: A lot of my frames are wet with condensation, some have quite a bit of uncapped nectar, and some have areas of damp mold. I have tried staggering the hives on all of the warm dry days, but there haven't been many of those yet this year here in Seattle. Can I freeze these wet frames, and thaw them when the bees are strong enough to clean/manage them? I'm kind of in a bind. If I con't freeze them, pests will move in. If I freeze them, I'm freezing wet and in some places moldy stuff. But who knows how long it will be before we have weather that could dry them here.
I get that the bees can clean up all the old combs including mold when the hives are strong, but that won't be a while for my two new nucs coming on Saturday.
Dawn Bustanoby
Seattle, WA
http://www.playapixie.org