Every year, the bees coat the flow frame cells with wax before storing the honey and after a few years, that becomes a problem. Opening the cells gets difficult and the wax keeps the honey from flowing as it used to. I found a very fast and easy way to restore the frames to function.
It’s so fast, that I’m thinking that I’ll just dip them every year. That would not only sterilize the frames, but you can forget having to protect the honey supers from wax moths anymore. The light wax coating from the dipping wouldn’t work for the moths. Just stack them in the barn for next spring.
The only concern that I have is that Flow says not to expose the frames to temperatures above 70°C (158°F). I would make sure that the bucket of hot water is below that temperature, rather than boiling, as the note below the YouTube video says.
I like the idea of that dipping technique so I will use it if, and when, the time comes. I hear so many other stories about power spraying, cracked frames in cold, propolis etc etc…and not much of it mentioned in the pre-buy material. Yet more people seem to be destroying their frames through brute force. The water didn’t look like it was ‘boiling’ to me, so perhaps a little bit under will still do the trick. What the hell, I’ll do it. Like I have said a few times before, it looks like the flow people live in the most idyllic environment. No insult intended, but have they actually ventured into foreign climes themselves to see how their product performs, or are they relying purely on external sources of information?
John, just got your comment. I got worried about the advised pressure washing destroying the frames and it may get them clean from debris, but didn’t do anything for the wax buildup. This is how to fix that and is probably the best way to clean them, too. Wax melts at 170F and so, I get the water somewhat above that. Probably, the water could be boiling, but I worried about the plastic softening. About 180F works great and looks safe for the frames. When the frames get built up to this lever, they’re non-functional anyway. So, really, what’s the risk?!
