We shred loads of paper. We try to get everything in electronic format, but some stuff (insurance, healthcare etc) still comes on paper. I bet shredded waste paper above such a screen would be fine too, and you could recycle it, even if it was wet! 
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I think so Dawn. Newspaper is ideal because it is very absorbent. I tried hemp pet bedding which didnāt work very well, and pine shavings which are better. Newspaper are best option and they go straight to the compost bin. Bees seem to enjoy the sports section bestā¦
Here in Oz we still get free community newspapers in the letterbox weekly, so there is a never ending supply.
Ohā¦ and to make life easier, Iād put them in an old pillow case, or hessian to keep them contained when taking the lid off.
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Actually Rupert decided we no longer needed ours over on the east coast and used Covid as an excuse to shut down the presses.
It is agriculture. There is only one measure of success - amount of produce delivered to consumer.
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I donāt think that is necessarily true, especially in this crowd. With commercial beekeepers, you are absolutely correct though.
Some people may want beehives to pollinate their crops more than harvest honey. I am a backyard beekeeping enthusiast myself, I grow my own fruit and veggies and the sortā¦ Iām happy with just enough honey for us, and a bit extra to give or sell, but the absolute amount of honey produced is not the end goal for me. Iām sure there are others here with the same approach.
I compare them more with backyard chooks. We keep them for eggs, but they are not battery chickens, you know what I mean Mr. Aye Bee Beeā¦
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And the purpose of pollination is? 
I keep bees because it is fun. And a part of the fun for me is to fine tune colonyās environment (whatever is in my control) for best production. I believe only well looked after colony may produce best results. Whatever result I may be interested in at the moment. Same applies to commercial beekeepers. So I do not see any contradiction between commercial and hobby beekeeping here.
I gave away about 70 kg of honey from the last season harvest. Majority of it went to people who never tried honey not bought from supermarket. I did it purely for educational purpose. Call me crazy but it is a fun for me too. I believe people need to know how the real food tastes like. If I was not chasing good production I would not be able to afford this part of entertainment
Anyway. Can you propose any other metric by which we can measure a success in beekeeping? I think hive survival in our climate is pretty low. What else?
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As a tangent, most cases shredded paper isnāt accepted for recycling. Itās either too difficult for the facility to deal with or the cellulose fiber is too short to make usable paper out of again.
So, that encourages me to at least reuse it as insulation or packing material or, if it is clean and not excessively dyed - compost and mulch.
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San Diego must be an exception then. 
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Thatās good! San Diego is exception for other reasons too.
I guess bagging it makes it manageable for them to accept but I wonder if, when the paper is graded for processing, it affects the whole loadās potential useā¦
https://archive.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/materials/paper/web/html/grade.html
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We are on the same page ABB. Most of us backyard beekeepers keep bees for āfunā as you say, so in a way that is one metric. For me enjoyment of keeping bees healthy without impacting the local natural environment comes way before honey production.
For example I know I may be sacrificing my honey crop this year because I am building up numbers for a double brood box set up, but for me having a stronger colony with good reserves over next winter is more important because around here thereās less food available. If I have to split a hive to make sure they wonāt swarm into the national park next door, so be it, even if my honey production suffers. Iāll still get enough honey to keep me and the kids happy.
There are some unethical practices by commercial ākeepers in certain parts of the world regarding almond and avocado pollination. Their metric is yet again different. Letās not go there.
Shredded paper is not recyclable here either. Actually the list of non-recyclable things that people assume is recyclable is depressingly long. Glossy paper canāt be composted either, but the inks used in newspaper is totally nontoxic these days, so safe for the compost heap at leastā¦ and quilt boxes.
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So true! This was the first season I had so much comb honey and Flow honey that I decided to sell some. I put a small box of comb in with my first customerās order of jars as a free sample, and this mom of three small boys wrote back to me just raving about the exceptional flavor of both types (of course!) and thanking me for the novel experience her boys enjoyed, of eating honeycomb for the first time.
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Fresh is best. Honey from a bee keeper is 100% honey, sadly the stuff in the super markets in Australia is diluted down, and has been for many decades.
Sometimes I wish the honey flow was seasonal with a quiet time, but the āWinterā months is when my hives are most productive. If I had a quiet time I guess I could stand around and watch the paint dry on newly made hivesā¦ 
Cheers Eva
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@honeyeater, I too have gotten into bees for their pollinating of our home grown fruit trees, veggies, and last but not least my wifeās flower garden. I have noticed over the pervious 2 years, a vast drop off of bees here, I thought that it might have been due to the 2 years of drought, but I have since found out that a local beekeeper had all of his bees poisoned. I donāt know whether it was deliberate or accidental (eg crop spraying). BTW our yard is now full of bees (as I didnāt get my hive setup in time this year), canāt wait until Spring next year, for when our fruit trees come out in blossom, and to see what improvement in fruit quantity there will bee.
@Freebee2, I wonder if some mould was to be grown in part of the white plastic tray, could it be helpful for the bees disease wise???
Just a quick update on the mould situation. All my efforts to clean the mould were unsuccessful. Buoyed by some suggestions that it isnāt really a problem I replaced the frame āas isā. I am happy to report that the bees have since filled the frame with honey.
Based on my observations the bees seem to have avoided the mouldy cells until there was no more space and then they proceeded with cleaning and storing honey.
Iām about to harvest the hive. Itās been a full 12 months, almost to the day, since the last harvest!
Happy new year to everyone and may 2021 be a great year for beekeeping.
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A very interesting question, and one Iām afraid I donāt have an answer for! Iād personally be inclined to remove the mould, as much as possible, and then not worry too much about itā¦ but this is not based on any particular evidence or theory, just instinct.
That is an interesting thought, It is definitely up for some scientific research. Although my mind goes to nosema. Which is a type of fungus that impacts bees significantly, so it might be a risky thing to try.
Perhaps fungi instead of mouldā¦I seem to recall reading mushroom powder being given to bees as part of a research programme and sons positive benefit being realised. I think the research was in the USA and linked with varroa research???
@Dawn_SD donāt suppose you have any awareness of what Iām talking about?
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@SnowflakeHoney - Are you talking about feeding bees mycelium extracts, such as with Paul Stametsā research?
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Probably.
I remember it as mushrooms but that fitsā¦
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