extraction questio

[rgy]

Probably going to pull a honey box this weekend and extract.  After I extract the honey what do I do with the frames of pulled wax?  they are plastic med. frames (6 inch).   Do I put it back on the hive for them to clean up?  do I leave it out side the hive for them to clean?  How do I store it after it is clean so i have pulled comb for next season?  Newbee so I need pretty specific instruction.  I know the pulled comb is beekeepers gold so I don't want to screw it up.

[D Coates]

Personally I put them back on to be cleaned up in a controlled secure environment (in a fully defended hive).  If you leave them out to be cleaned up, I've found fighting will ensue and fresh comb get torn up.  All of my supers are also on plastic foundation but to me this makes no difference on where I'd put freshly extracted supers.

[L Daxon]

DCoats has it right.  I just extracted one plastic comb worth of honey over the weekend, but I had left a lot of honey on it.  It didn't seem to want to drip off.  I  just set it out on the back porch about 10:30 p.m. Sunday (it was about 40 feet from the hive).  Next time I looked on the porch was about 8 a.m. Monday and there was a cloud of bees around the frame and there was nary a drop of honey left...and wax was everywhere on the ground.  I had no idea they would tear into the wax the way they did, though they did leave some cells in tact.  Next time I will put the frame(s) back in the hive to be cleaned up.

[rgy]

Thanks.  so I put it back on...  How long does it take?  Once it is cleaned up how do I store my "gold" pulled comb for the winter?

[OzBuzz]

Yeah, i would put it back on! Leave it on for a few days and then check - if you're happy that it's clean pull it off. I'd recommend storing the frames in a chext freezer if you can to protect them from wax moth

[beee farmer]

if your going to put it back on the hive make sure you do it at dusk, otherwise you invite robbing by any other colonies you have around.  I set all my wet extracted boxes out about 100 yard from the hives for cleaning, even that I wait till dark to put them out to prevent a robbing frenzy and after 2 days thay are completly dry and ready fo redeployment or storage whichever is needed.

[L Daxon]

How can you store over winter if you don't have a freezer? I might be able to get one frame at a time in my regular freezer to freeze for a day or two to kill any pests, but after that can I take out and store is a big sealed plastic bag?

[L Daxon]

What can you do for winter storage if you don't have an extra freezer?  I might be able to freeze one frame at a time for 48 hrs or so to kill pests, then after that do you put them in a big plastic storage bag and maybe keep in the cooler garage for the winter?  What if you have some honey/pollen on the frames cause you want to have something to start a new hive/swarm with next spring?

[AllenF]

a lot of people use trash bags.   Big heavy ones.   Put the whole box in there but let it warm up and dry out to keep the mold off of it in storage.   I lucked up a  few years ago and got a double glass door commercial fridge.  I can keep close to 60 shallow boxes in there.   Back when I was young we stored in a old deep freezer that went bad.   There are still old boxes in there now that has not seen bees in 30 to 40 years.  Dad wants me to get them one day when I get around to it.

[glenn c hile]

spray with BT.

[ronwhite3030]

I say pallet and shrink wrap depending on how many supers you have although I do love shrinkwrap and would probably do it with only a few.