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I use all mediums, so this colony had 3 boxes of brood and 4 supers. But that was in like July, and this is not typical for me, this colony was massive. I had taken 2 supers of honey off in August, so they were in 5 boxes when I noticed the problem last week, and I condensed them to 2 boxes. I wasn't sure if they still had a queen or not, so I let them go for another week to see if they'd have brood, but they didn't when I checked them today. This happened very quickly, because we have trouble with moths too, and hive beetles, and all the comb was pristine last week. Today they did have some beetle damage, but only on one frame. To clean up a deadout or a situation like this, I'll just freeze all the frames to kill all the pests, then cut out and toss any comb that has been destroyed. Drawn blanks are stored in tightly stacked extra bee boxes in my garage, sometimes with mothballs if it seems like it's a bad year for moths or a warm winter, and frames with pollen or honey in them I store in plastic bins. That keeps them safe from beetles, moths, and mice.
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