On 7 May we robbed the hives and ended up with 15-16 gallons. I left at least that much or more in there. My question is along these lines. I would like to pull again either Wednesday or Saturday, is that enough time for them to cap what was in there? We've had a few hot days, nice days, and cool days(for central Alabama) since then. The humidity was modest to high. Wednesday would be 11 days later and Saturday would be 14 days later. Also How long can I let it sit before I have to worry about SHBs sliming it? I would sling it on next Saturday which would be 48hrs after pulling it.
If you can keep the humidity level below 50% and that dry air circulating, small hive beetle eggs will not hatch. So if it's in an air conditioned house it will probably keep all right.
I try to extract within 3 days but have left it a week and even two weeks once without problem.
But then I have a very small SHB problem seeing only 2-3 beetles when I am in a hive. I also store my frames (both full and extracted) in plastic tote bins with clip on lids so they may help stabilise the environment a bit as well.