Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: kenglert on April 05, 2011, 09:10:08 am

Title: Moldy? Frames
Post by: kenglert on April 05, 2011, 09:10:08 am

Hey guys.  Last year was my first year with bees and, unfortunately, they did not make it through the winter.  I feed them in the fall and by the time I had checked them again they had all died.  I did my best to clean the dead bees out but some were still in the comb in the bottom box.  I packaged the hive up in garbage sacks and left it in my garage over the winter (in kansas...cold).  I was preparing for my new bees the other day and noticed a lot of the frames have molded (for lack of a better term) and there are still some dead bees in the comb.  Can I salvage these frames?  My super is clean with great drawn out comb in it so I'm going to start with that but I wasn't sure if I needed to buy new frames.
Thanks
Kurt

Title: Re: Moldy? Frames
Post by: T Beek on April 05, 2011, 09:21:58 am

Provided no apparent disease was present drawn brood comb is very enticing to bees and they will clean it up very nicely for you.  Use the best of them and clean them up as well as you can, bees will do the rest.

thomas

Title: Re: Moldy? Frames
Post by: kenglert on April 05, 2011, 01:20:42 pm

Do I have to attempt to clean the mold and dead bees out of the comb or will the new bees take care of that.  If I do have to clean it, what do I use?

Thanks for the reply
Kurt

Title: Re: Moldy? Frames
Post by: hardwood on April 05, 2011, 01:37:08 pm

I don't worry too much about the mold. The bees will also clean out the dead but if you want to give them a head start just allow the frames to air out for a day or so (so that the dead bees dry up) and gently tap the frame (horizontally) on the ground to knock them out.

Scott