How do you preserve a hive?

[gardeningfireman]

How do you preserve an external hive? I am going to get a colony that has about 6 combs from the branches of a spruce tree. I plan on combining the bees with a nuc I have from a trapout due to the lateness of the year. If it is possible, I want to keep the combs intact on a piece of the branch and keep it for display. What do I do with any brood, nectar, and honey that might be present?

[Michael Bush]

I would cut the limbs around it carefully and put the whole thing in a box.  But I've never tried it.

[windfall]

You want the combs empty more or less as is for display without bees right?

If so, you want to get them to move off the branch somehow and then retrieve the branch before they continue to build it out around the box you put it in. I would think if you could catch the queen and put her in a box below with an excluder above the brood could hatch out. If they had enough room below maybe they would move stores down too?

I really have no idea, just thoughts. Seems late to mess around like that but it sounds like a neat project.

I had a few small foundationless combs lying around this summer and everyone wanted to pick them up and inspect. Folks are fascinated by it. It would be a neat display to have several together intact.

[Haddon]

I have never done it.

But if you are just wanting ideas

I would try to keep them alive without the combine unless they are just too small.

But either way

I would make a box to hold the branch I would most likely make it out of the foam insulation board just because I would find it easier to deal with make the box big.

Make the box air tight because the next step would be to make a trapout.

Now the trapout would most likely be done in the spring unless you still have enough warm weather.

[LoriMNnice]

How do you preserve an external hive? I am going to get a colony that has about 6 combs from the branches of a spruce tree. I plan on combining the bees with a nuc I have from a trapout due to the lateness of the year. If it is possible, I want to keep the combs intact on a piece of the branch and keep it for display. What do I do with any brood, nectar, and honey that might be present?

To preserve the comb after you remove the live bees from it maybe you could set it somewhere for other bees to clean out the nectar etc. and then possibly freeze it for a while to kill anything? You probably have to remove any unhatched brood by hand so it does not rot. Then so the combs stay on the branch wire them on. I wonder if you can spray it with some kind of laquer/shellac? Please note I know nothing about bees and comb except for what I have read so I am giving you my input as a crafter not a beekeeper :)

[Hemlock]

How do you preserve an external hive? ...and keep it for display. What do I do with any brood, nectar, and honey that might be present?

Once you've dealt with the bees you could let the comb be robed out.  That would clean most of it up.  The edges will be jagged where the capped honey was though.  Some pollen might be left and capped brood will still be there.  Let it spend a month in the freezer to dry out some and keep it from wax moths.  Then you could hang it in a display case if you want.  The comb I have on display came from a winter dead out so it was already empty and cleaned out when i got it.  I display it openly in a well lit area to keep it dry and wax moth free.

Another issue will be the spruce needles.  They will dry out, become fragile, and eventually fall off.  So there's that mess.  The limbs will stay strong though.

[gardeningfireman]

Update:  The hive was about 26 feet up in the spruce tree, and all the bees and brood were dead. There was six combs, three of which had capped brood. No food stores, and all the adult bees were dead with their heads buried in the cells. It really stunk from the rotting brood. Some of the caps were perforated, but the dead grubs were not stringy, just rotting. I decided I am not going to take a chance of possible disease so I am going to burn it. If I get a healthy exposed colony next year, I will try the advice given. Thanks all!!