lost hives to mice, how to clean up for repopulation

[Paul Pelly]

Hi folks. I live in Nova Scotia and have lost 4 hives to mice  : (  How will I clean up frames, boxes, and drawn comb to repopulate? Some moldy pollen, dead bees and mouse crap on some frames but some drawn comb is clean and empty. Salvage wax, scorch frames and boxes and re-foundation frames? What about frames of honey? Clean but for mouse crap. Save it for the bees to "rob" ?? We had a bad winter. Only one healthy hive remaining. It has a top entrance and was a very strong hive going into winter. Four nuc's coming in a couple weeks. Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks, Paul

[rober]

I'd salvage all the frames with intact drawn comb. freeze them for a few days & use them. scrub the hives with a weak bleach solution & let them dry. replace any badly chewed up comb with new foundation. if bees are being installed soon I'd not even worry about mold. the bees will clean it up. I'd also install mouse guards & set some traps around your hives.

[Steel Tiger]

 Pretty much what robber said. clean out the mouse crap and wash the inside of the boxes and the bottom board with bleach water to get rid of urine. The frames of honey and pollen, you can set them out and let your bees rob them. Once they're empty, freeze them for a couple days then throw them back into the hive when your nucs arrive.
Bees that are in building mode will quickly fix damaged comb. Unless a frame of comb is absolutely rancid, you can put it back into the hive for the bees to take care of.