Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: OPAVP on April 08, 2013, 10:24:47 pm
-
Hi friends,
I run a few hives,8 frame boxes with shallow frames.
I have a number of frames with cristalized sugar in them.
Should I just leave them in the hives with the bees? Or should I clean then off and let the bees startt anew. By the way,all my frames are plastic. I have white and blacks.
Any suggestions??
Thanks a lot.
OpaVp.
Lethbridge,Alberta.
-
sugar can attract ants. If the bees don't clean them, I've seen someone pull old frames out and laid them on ant hills to be cleaned up. I guess it depends if you have brood in the frames as well.
-
.
Crystallized honey is more than normal after winter. In cold climate almost all honey crystallizes in cold hive and feed sugar remains liquid.
So, it is normal that old honey and winter sugar exist in the hive before next yield. It it does not exist, the hive has starved.
In douple brood system job is easy when you turn over first and second brood box. Bees clean the upper parts of frames and make there brood.
It is good if they have a palce where to move the stuff, and that is whyn I make turn over when I add the first super.
It is good to move old store frames in the middle that when bees use them for brooding, they will clean them too.
Often there are too much winter food in spring, and it is better take off that queen has laying space.
You may use winter food easily to swarms. 3 food frames and the rest foundations.
.
If you have 1 or 2 winter food frames, you move then in summer between brood frames.
.
-
.
If you have several crystallized honey frames, put them garually between brood frames during summer when you add boxes to hives.
Uncap them and spray water onto crystalls.