Just got back from a two week vacation and found that all is not well with my hives. Two had been hit by Small Hive Beetles, one I've been able to reduce down to a nuc and seems to be holding its own while the second was hit pretty hard and I ended up doing a shakeout with all the frames to save the bees. I placed a deep with 2 frames of drawn foundation and eight frames of new foundation on the original bottom board. The two drawn foundations I sprayed with sugar water to draw the bees in and it has seemed to work so far.
My question is what to do with all the frames that have been slimed by the SHBs. I know that a lot of them are only fit for the solar wax melter but could I hose off the ones that aren't that bad, let them air dry in the sun and then reuse them? I am currently using a mix of wax and plastic foundation for my deeps with only wax foundation for my shallows.
My other question is it possible to save or feed back to the bees the frames of honey from the destroyed hive. There are some honey frames that are half capped. I was planning to hose the slime off of them, shake the water off and leave them out for robbing.
I'm looking at four deeps and three shallows that got hit and I would like to save what I can if possible. going to be looking for more bees also once I get the yard straightened out.
Thanks