Did my very first cut out! Have some questions about the honey.

[njoylife10]

Had an opportunity to remove a hive from an old shed wall.  Wasn't really sure what we were doing, but tore  into it.  You have to start somewhere, right? :)  Thank you youtube for teaching me a little something.  WOW what an awesome experience.  Had my helper looking for the queen, while I was removing comb.   We had no problem finding her.  Everything went really smooth.  So now I have a new hive and about 20-30 pounds of honey.

The shed was completely infested with rats.  There were nests in the void above the hive and below the hive (they had to walk through it).  When I was filling out the frames for the hive box, I put all the brood in and 2 frames of honey.  Then when I got them home I put about 5 pounds of the honeycomb in the hive top feeder box.  My question is I do not want to keep this honey for human consumption, I would have to crush and strain and I'm certain there is all kinds of rat dander on the comb.  Would it be okay to crush it up and do open feeding in the beeyard?  Or should I just put some in each hive top feeder?  Or should I feed it only to the hive that it belongs to.  And after they put this one clean comb would it then be okay to use for human consumption?


Thanks all,

njoylife10

[iddee]

I would place it 100 feet or more away from the hives and NOT crush it. They can take it from the comb without drowning much better than after it is crushed.

[greenbtree]

Like Iddee said.  Just lay out the comb on plastic or something.  When they strip out the honey from one side, flip the pieces over and let them get the rest.  Easy.  Just put it up on a table or something, unless you want to make a skunk buffet.

JC

[AllenF]

Ditto.