Old hive clean out

[Coyote_hunter]

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 ? 

[cao]

Welcome 

It is not a good idea to open feed near your hives.  It can start a robbing frenzy.  I try to keep it as far away as possible.  In my case, a couple hundred feet.  A bee's waggle dance telling the location of a food source isn't very accurate when close to the hive so your other hives may become the food source.  I don't where in Indiana you are located(put in profile please) but in my area the bees are acting like there is a little dearth right now and are going nuts on any spilled honey/nectar.  Typically I don't see them acting like this til middle to late July. 

[beepro]

Has it ever occur to you that these dead out with bits of honey left over might be the sign of the
diseased hives?   Letting your bees to rob out these honey might infect the entire colony if there is bee
disease present.   The most notorious is the AFB disease.    Not worth it!

[eltalia]

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

[BeeMaster2]

I recommend that first thing this morning that you move the equipment at least 100 feet or more from your hives. I would contact the seller and ask if he treats for American Foul Brood. If he says no then I would inspect the frames. Look for little tongues sticking up in the cells. If you find them, call your state inspector to verify.
Here in Florida, the rate of AFB is only 1 percent but that is because we have a good inspection system. States with little or no prevention have much higher rates.
Do a search for pictures of comb with AFB so that you know what to look for.
Jim

[BeeMaster2]

Here is a site with good info.
http://beeaware.org.au/archive-pest/american-foulbrood/#ad-image-0

[Acebird]

I would also keep the 9 hives in a separate apiary until you get experience with them.

[iddee]

Although what beepro posted is true, so is the possibility of a meteor coming in and striking a hive and destroying it. I would guess the chances are nearly equal. I have bought established hives and used equip. for 42 years. The only case of AFB I have ever had came in a strong, lively 2 story hive.

[jalentour]

If the seller gives you the green light as to the failure of the deadouts, I would put a lot of the drawn comb on your packages. 
The package bees will most likely do very well on healthy drawn comb.

If you're not sure about the deadouts, post some pictures on the Forum, people here are very helpful and knowledgeable. 

[Coyote_hunter]

I looked at pics of frames with foulbrood and went through  all the frames and didn?t see anything that looked like that.   The former owner passed away last year and the hives have been sitting with no attention since last June.   I thought I was just buying the equipment but there ended up being 9 hives full of bees .

[BeeMaster2]

If the bees have been on their own for the last year and the hives look strong, I would say you got a great deal. They are probably better bees than the other ones that you bought.
Jim

[Acebird]

I would be inclined to agree with Jim.

[wadehump]

Been keeping bees since the mid 70's and never seen foulbrood and have bought and been giving lots of used equipment.

[beepro]

AFB spores can live for a long long time even in the honey.   That is why the advice is to not feed
honey from unknown origin to your bees that might harbor this disease or other bee diseases.  Who knows if the
honey is contaminated or not coming from the dead out?    This is my point!

I would not take this gamble knowing that 9 healthy hives are at stake here.  Without the previous owner to verify I
would be a bit cautious about them cleaning out comb and equipment.