Frames after crush and strain

Shawn · September 22, 2009, 07:46:01 PM

Ok so I used, well tried :-D, to use the crush and strain. The frames were put back into the super and placed in the yard away from the hives so they could clean them up a bit. I noticed the frames are still all messy and sticky. DO I leave them like that or is there a way to clean them up?

Kathyp · September 22, 2009, 08:20:55 PM

you can take a hose to them, but the bees will get most of it.

jclark96 · September 22, 2009, 08:33:00 PM

Criss cross the supers to allow the bees to get in there, or stack the frames openly. Just don't set them too close to the hives.

dbart · September 24, 2009, 12:50:36 AM

Quote from: jclark96 on September 22, 2009, 08:33:00 PM
Criss cross the supers to allow the bees to get in there, or stack the frames openly. Just don't set them too close to the hives.

I've also wondered how to clean the empty frames. Can u put the whole super back on the hive and let the bees clean it that way? It would seem that this would be a food source

scdw43 · September 24, 2009, 01:35:04 AM

Just set them over an inner cover. Make sure that the supers are bee tight. Some say to set an empty box on the inner cover and set the supers on top of that box. Either way, if the boxes are bee tight they will clean all the honey out of them. If it is not bee tight robber bess will enter through the cracks or holes and cause a big fight.

Hethen57 · September 24, 2009, 01:39:27 AM

I recently put a super of scraped foundation back on for clean-up and the bees didn't clean it, they re-built it and re-filled it within a week :-D. After the next crush and strain, I wrapped the honey covered frames in celophane and put them in my outdoor freezer for next Spring.

tillie · September 24, 2009, 02:15:18 AM

I always put the super with the dripping frames back on the hive, usually under the inner cover because I often have the same experience of their filling the super yet again - not this year in such a poor harvest year but in other years.

Linda T in Atlanta

danno · September 24, 2009, 08:57:57 AM

After the bee's clean them up, I put them in my solar wax melter. Mine will hold up to 9 frames at a time. In a couple of hours in the mid to high 70's all the wax is gone.

Davepeg · September 24, 2009, 08:35:20 PM

Danno,
Did you build your solar wax melter? Any pic? My husband wants to build one for next year.

Sparky · September 24, 2009, 09:37:03 PM

Davepeg You can find solar wax melter plans here.
http://www.beesource.com/build-it-yourself/solar-wax-melter/

Grandma_DOG · September 25, 2009, 02:30:31 AM

A video of my simple and effective melters is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FUhAYDMgic

The only mod I'd do is use a peice of sheet metal on the bottom. I used a unrolled 20" duct tube.

And don't put a hinged lid on it. You really want to take the lid off and out of the way from time to time.

danno · September 25, 2009, 09:08:04 AM

Quote from: Davepeg on September 24, 2009, 08:35:20 PM
Danno,
Did you build your solar wax melter? Any pic? My husband wants to build one for next year.

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Shawn · September 28, 2009, 02:21:46 PM

Well We got some nice warm weather last week so the bees could really do their thing. Its amazing how quick they could clean 20 frames. It only took two days of nice weather and there was no more dripping honey, or any honey that I could see.

sarafina · September 28, 2009, 05:49:32 PM

My solar wax melter consists of an old cooler lined in foil with a piece of glass I got at Home Depot. I taped the edge of the glass with duct tape so it wouldn't be so sharp. Works great.