An interesting observation

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks,

Last winter I cleaned up a lot of old frames in preparation for the coming seasons. Some of the frames that were steamed had plastic foundation and obviously the sheets had to be removed before the steaming process. The comb was quickly scraped back to the foundation surface and then stored in a pile in the shed. The plan was to give the foundation a good clean in the spring just before placing it into boxes for swarms to clean up and draw out new comb. Due to the poor, dry spring, the bees struggled and didn?t build up as they usually do. I took no honey at all from my home yard and many of the hives are lacking any winter stores. The 20 or so sheets of foundation sat on a box and were not cleaned, moved or examined until this afternoon. Here is a shot of how the pile looked. You may notice the wax layer on the top sheet. This was one that I had cleaned up and rolled some cappings wax onto about 6 weeks ago but didn?t use it.

[Lesgold]

This foundation was actually stored under my wood turning lathe so it is often covered in shavings and dust. I extracted some honey from another yard today (the only honey I will collect this season) and decided to replace a couple of frames. While the last of my honey was spinning out, I decided to grab a couple of the foundation sheets to clean them up. When it lifted the second sheet from the pile, this is what I saw.

[Lesgold]

The foundation had a lot of wax, pollen, old bee casing and propolis covering large areas and wax moth larvae got in and ate the lot. In the previous photo you could see a black powder residue which was easy to brush off with a banister brush. The final photo shows a closeup of the cells and how clean they are. Only a bit of dust residue remains. I could not believe how thorough the wax moth was in the cleanup.

[Kathyp]

Does this fall under 'everything has its use'?   

I am surprised there's no web mess.

[cao]

I've had a similar experience.  Had a dozen or so sheets of foundation stuck in a box that I didn't get around to pressure washing and a stack of foundation that I cleaned and waxed.  Both were visited by those tiny wax moth larvae.  They seemed to like the foundation that wasn't cleaned better than the cleaned and waxed ones.  I also have a bunch of frames hanging from the ceiling in my garage that I noticed they are on.

I am surprised there's no web mess.

There is some webbing but just a little.  Nothing like what those large wax moth larvae can produce.

[BeeMaster2]

I have purposely left messed up plasticell sheets out side for a long time then I just had to brush them off and then dip them in wax and they were ready to use. A lot better than putting them in a pan and getting soaking wet pressure washing them.
Jim Altmiller