Equipment Storage

[Rusted!]

Good evening all.
Been building boxes,and got to thinking "What am i going to do with all these until their needed? And what do I do with them for the winter?  So I am sure that a lot of you have the same issue and wondered how you all deal with it.  What do you do with all of your equipment when it is not being used?  Any useful insight, or tips for a nu-bee?  One thing in particular I am concerned about is what to do with foundation.  Doesn't seem too safe to just leave it laying around on my work bench.  Same with putting it in frames, and storing the supers. Will critters (of which I have plenty) go for it? Or am I worrying for nothing again?  Should I be putting it in some kind of storage box?  Seems like this is going to be even a bigger problem once the supers are used, and have some sticky honey on them for the critters winter fuel!  I am looking for some useful suggestions here if you would. 
Thanks.

[Bennettoid]

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OK, serious answer-- Build a new, huge barn.

[Michael Bush]

If I had the room, I'd store it in the garage. I don't, so it's stacked up outside.

[annette]

I am going on my third year with the bees and I had felt this same dilemna as you. You will get different opinions about what to do and you can make a decision based on this.

I have 2 hives and I keep all my equipment in my friends barn. He has given me 2 large shelves and some floor space to store everything and it seems to work out for now. 

When you extract honey you will bring the supers back up to the hives for the bees to clean up and so you will not have sticky frames to store away. The bees do a great job of cleaning up the frames.When the time comes, we can go over that process with you.

Now the cleaned up wax comb frames can be stored many ways and the beekeepers here on this forum do things differently. I have a very large freezer and so I just freeze the frames until I need them next year.

I have looked into the possibility of placing them into very large storage boxes (those plastic ones). I did find a few sizes that worked at Target. If I use my 5 frame medium super (that I purchased from Brushy Mountain Bee Catalog) and place the wax comb frames into that super, I can place that into a garbage bag first (and tied tightly)  and then I can fit that into a plastic storage box that I found. Anyway, you will hear other suggestions.

Good Luck
Annette

Oops!! I hope I was understanding you about the sticky honey supers. Did you mean full supers full of honey that you will store away for the bees in case they need it come the winter?? If this is the case, well I froze all my frames filled with honey until I needed them to feed back to the bees. If you cannot freeze them, then I would somehow keep them in the supers and place into several trash bags and find a good size plastic storage container to place the whole thing into. Lets hear what other beekeepers say about this.

[Brian D. Bray]

I currently keep mine in a corner of the barn but since the barn is to be converted into a family gathering hall (i.e. family reunions, etc.) I have to make room in the shed.  When I do it will be a dedicated bee equipment and honey room.

[NWIN Beekeeper]

I will forward my address, you can just mail it all to me.
If I am not using it, I can send it back to you C.O.D when you ask for it.
Please make sure everything has a fresh coat of paint.  8-)

you have to stop crying, I have some 200+ boxes that I had to winter outdoors for the lack of space.
That doesn't even consider bottom boards, pallets, lids, Nucs and drawn comb for splits/nucs. 
Because it's in the garage, basement, living room, dining room, and both sides of my bed, I had to have Christmas in a nursing home with people I don't even know just to have space for my family.  :shock:
It's just the cost of doing business.  Be creative.

My wife understands she has to park outside, why can't you?  :-\
The bees poop on her new truck and she's not on here upset telling everyone!  :roll:
You have to suck it up and do what you have to do!

[Michael Bush]

You do need to close them up well enough to keep mice out and you need to either have them where they freeze or do something for the wax moths.  I try to keep them frozen, but, when I have time, I try to treat them with Certan (Bt).

[danno]

I had planned on getting a old chest freezer from the scrapyard and building racks to hold frames.  I could freeze first the frames first before storing or use crystals in the old freezer.  I have a large barn for everything else the mice wont eat.

[bassman1977]

I have all my stuff in a corner of my basement. I double wrap each box in a garbage bag and stack them on top of each other.

[Rusted!]

Thanks All,
But I didn't mean to whine.  Just wondering how much damage the critters would do to unused and waiting frames and wax.  I do have space in the top o the barn for the empty supers , even though i am still considering mailing them to NWIN to use when I can', but he only wants them with fresh paint, and I HATE to paint.   :-D  I understand about letting the girls do their own dishes, and I have done this in the past, but they don't seem to good at putting them away.   :-P Like the idea about a chest freezer, should be reasonable especially if I can freeze frames for later feed back.  Bagging seems like a lot o work and I have some tough mice in my barn that I think would chew right through just to find out what is inside the bag.  Do you think the empty supers would hold up being stacked in an old tobacco barn?  Wouldn't want to flavor the honey...  smoked honey Hummm! :roll:  Can you explain more about "wax mouths".  Is this going to be a big problem?  Annette you got it right, was thinking about frames after comb removed.  Always somthing left to give back, and they do a great job of cleanup.  Shoudl I be worried about the two hives fighting for it?  Last time I had only 1 hive, and I find that things are considerable different this time.  More things to worry about...  ;)

[Michael Bush]

Mice and wax moths will do a lot of damage.

[annette]

Rusted,

I am a bit confused now what you mean. I think you are trying to say that after extracting the honey, you would bring the supers back up to the hives to have them clean them up. Is this correct??? Now the hives would not be fighting over the extracted honey supers because the supers would be placed back into the hives. You place the extracted supers over an inner cover, then cover it all up. Usually done in the later afternoon or evening, and by the morning they have cleaned up the supers.

I hope I am understanding what you are saying. 

Annette

[JP]

Send them to Jeff unpainted, this way if he wants to use them he'll have to paint them, trust me, you'll get 'em back painted!!! :-D


...JP

[tillie]

You'll find that you won't have sticky mess on the frames after harvest, because you'll do like Annette says and put the harvested frames back on the hives to clean up.

The main problem for winter storage is about the wax moths around here.  I stack mine in the sun in my carport catty corner so all of the boxes are open to the light.  I haven't had a problem and I have brick walls about 1 1/2 feet high around my carport - all lined with catty corner stacked bee boxes!

Don't keep the foundation in the freezer.  I did to keep the moths out.  One day I opened the freezer door and all the foundation fell out and shattered into tons of pieces.  So sad.  Now I keep unused foundation sheets in my sewing room closet!

Linda T in Atlanta

[annette]

Yes, you do have to be very careful when removing the frames from the freezer as they are so brittle and can break in an instant. It would be great to be able to keep them inside a super, then into the freezer if you can get one big enough. I just ordered a few more 5 frame mediums supers from Brushy Mt catalog mostly for this purpose. This way you just carefully lift out the whole super and let the frames thaw out.

But I like what you said Linda about how you have been able to air them out in the sun all winter and no problems. You do not even have any problems with mice?  Or other small animals?? Amazing.

You are my hero Linda
Love
Annette

[Paraplegic Racehorse]

So, gathering all the wisdom granted you so far you should:

Feed the sticky mess back to the bees.
THEN
Freeze the supers to kill any wax moth eggs.
THEN
Store the boxes in your barn/shed in such a way to keep the mice out
BUT
Don't worry about the mice so much because the bees will repair any damage done
AND
It doesn't hurt to toss a small handful of ordinary mothballs on top of your stack of supers. The gases should keep the critters out, even if they do try to get in. :)
AND
Foundation can be stored in your freezer, away from the edge of the shelf where it can fall, and preferably in a clearly marked box.

Uh..

You better just send 'em to NWIN.

[tillie]

Thanks, Annette!

No critters here - not that they don't exist in Georgia - I have possums in my yard, the occasional rat, raccoons - they just didn't bother the bee boxes since the boxes were not under cover (light discourages the wax moths) and the frames had been cleaned out by the bees.
As hot as Hotlanta gets, in the winter we have freezing nights for at least the month of January rather continuously - and many other cold nights starting in November - it was in the 30s here on Tuesday this week (April) at night.  So the wax moths don't get happy in my frames and boxes and nothing else seems too interested.

Mine made it through the winter just fine.  Last year I tripped over boxes in my basement all winter long and without the sun, I had some wax moth problems there.  In my carport, no wax moths, no mothballs, no critters, no nothing....

Linda T in Atlanta