one of the supers that i'm exracting was in the house for a week. a couple frames had some webbing on top of the capping & there were a couple cocoons on the frame. there were a few open cells. when you hold these frames up to the light there are some dark cells of honey. is this honey contaminated or will whatever is in in filter out? i would not discard the honey. i'd let the bees rob them out if need be.
I ran into the same thing with a couple of boxes that sat over the holidays, but I had extracted. If I had not, I would first freeze the boxes for 2 days, then place the boxes back onto a strong hive to clean up the moth problems. Bees are real good at cleaning up bad frames. Then you can extract.
But with moths and beetles, freezing is a must coming off the hives because of this. Just wanted to get that out to all.
so-just to be clear the honey would be contaminated & what might happen with the honey? i may just let the bees rob 2 frames because i already uncapped them.
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Freezing is good and clean method to kill moths.
I just don't like the idea of worm poop in honey. But I know when you place the boxes back on the hives, bees will clean up all the mess. Then you can extract afterwards. Give them a few days on a hive. Then see what they look like. I would not leave them out to be robbed.
i do not want to bottle tainted honey either. freezing uncapped frames sounds like it would be a big mess. what about putting them back in the five, let them recap them, & then freeze & extract?
if i'm not extracting right away, next time i will definitely freeze the frames.