Storeing emty supers in honey house

[papabear]

I was given a 12' x 24' building. I am making it the honey house. My ? is can I store the supers w/ the crystals on the boxes in the honey house? Will the crystals damage anything else in the house?

[Bee-Bop]

I assume your are talking paradichlorobenzene ?
If so the bottom & top of the stack are supposed to be sealed, any opening in the stack sealed.
That's what the bee books say.
Has some precautionary info. on the label. Check them before useing.

Bee-Bop

[BjornBee]

I've had supers stored inside and out, and had no need for crystals.  :-D

Of course, I also (or at least do my best) do not allow my bees to lay brood in the supers, store pollen in the supers, etc. I've even been known to use an excluder despite many who claim their ineffectiveness.....  :shock:

No brood in the supers, almost no wax moth damage. A long lost art form replaced by the inability to use queen excluders properly.  ;)

Crystals.....So Yummy tasting!  :-*

[Kathyp]

maybe you live in an area like mine where wax moth is almost a non-issue?  i store my extra stuff in the barn.  i have no problem with wax moth.  of course, it freezes up there in the winter.

[homer]

I've had supers stored inside and out, and had no need for crystals.  :-D

Of course, I also (or at least do my best) do not allow my bees to lay brood in the supers, store pollen in the supers, etc. I've even been known to use an excluder despite many who claim their ineffectiveness.....  :shock:

No brood in the supers, almost no wax moth damage. a long lost art form replaced by the inability to use queen excluders properly.  ;)

Crystals.....So Yummy tasting!  :-*

WHy is it that the wax moths tend to only be in comb that has had brood in it?

[BjornBee]

homer,
wax moths will always focus on the brood chamber that has the organic matter built up, like the cocoons from brood rearing. I actually have very clean comb, sitting out in an open pole barn for a couple years now, and no damage. I don't even have the stuff covered.

I'm not saying we do not have wax problems up here, even though I am sure it is less than that of the south.

But there are many ways to deal with the issue. How about a big chest freezer? You can freeze several boxes at a time, then store them in your insect proof tightly made honey house.

If have enough hives for a honey house, then your probably buying the crystals in 35 lb buckets. That is about $125 per bucket. You can pick up a chest freezer cheap, and run it for less than that per year. And think about it....when there are no combs to freeze (can you say drone comb without ticking off the old lady), you can freeze road kill, make the blue appear on the beer cans, or fill it up and use it as a beer cooler itself.

And if I was in the deep south, I'd be storing some of those supers on the hives.  ;)

But the last thing I would do is pour crystals on them.

[papabear]

If you have a freezer, u really cant put more than a couple boxes in there. I only have six or eight supers to store and always wax moths get in if i dont put the crystals.

[BjornBee]

If you have a freezer, u really cant put more than a couple boxes in there. I only have six or eight supers to store and always wax moths get in if i dont put the crystals.

You only need to freeze a couple boxes at a time for a few days, then store them in your moth proof honey house....  ;) 

[Koala John]

Another data point which supports BjornBee: Last week I went through a few boxes of honey I've had lying around for a while. For various reasons the boxes had a mix of older dark comb and some combs that had never had brood in them and had only been used in supers. The darker combs all had some kind of wax moth infestation, some to a worse degree than others. But the combs without any brood in them previously were virtually untouched, even in boxes that had quite a few darker combs with a bad infestation - the wax moths would happily destroy them and leave the super combs alone. It really struck me how much more wax moths prefer the darker combs over those that have only had honey in them.

Regards,
John.

[Joelel]

Try to store them in a room in your house.Try to keep the suppers stacked the same as they come off the hive. Any cracks the bees sealed with wax will mostly seal again if you push down on them.Put wax paper in between the suppers from different hives or between each supper if you want and on the bottom and tops of the stacks. Push them tight together.