My wife and I just started in beekeeping this year. We started with 3 nucs on May 14th and then we fell into a deal. We bought a ton of equipment including 9 hives full of bees. There were several hives that were empty or dead outs with some homey left in them. I stacked the boxes with the old comb and honey out by the hives and am letting the bees clean them up. Is that a good or bad idea ?
G'day... an' welcome.
Assumin' by "deal" the implied condition was something you were privvy to
as history before taking delivery I would offer using the stores now was not
the ideal way to go. The day will come - and likely shortly - you will have a
use for stores in supplementry feeding.
One alternative is to pack away those more than 40% capped (honey)
and the remainder cycle into the viable colonys you purchased by frame
shuffles, leaving you with a selection of unused hardware to be cleaned
(scrape+wirebrush) and washed then archived.
The catch 22 in open "cleaning" is exactly that as feeding syrups, you
create a false positive for bees to which they will react in some manner
which rarely suits your Plan. A few frames or "their own "stickies" after
harvest is fine whereas putting out a smorgasboard can have it's downside.
Bill