We have come to winter here and have just removed our Flow super. We have put the frames near the hive so the bees can clean them up- and they are at it. We plan to store them for winter now- and thought perhaps we should freeze them so that any wax moth larvae is killed.
Does the Flow team have any input here? Could freezing degrade the flow frame plastic? Could it become brittle?
also does anyone have any ideas/advice on how to treat the frames before re-installing them? Do you leave all the old broken capping, etc on them? I imagine so- as removal won’t be easy and it should give the bees a big head start next year.
I am not Cedar or Flow staff, but I have heard them discussing freezing frames for propolis removal. There don’t seem to be any problems with freezing. If you want to kill wax moths and SHB, 48 hours at -20C in the freezer should do it. Then wrap the frames and store wrapped until next season.
thanks Dawn- that’s pretty much our plan- I am a little concerned as I have noticed how plastic take away food containers become brittle and snap when they are frozen.
Do others think we are being overly cautious? We have seen wax moths around our hive- but would the frames likely be fine simply stored somewhere cold over winter? We don’t get freezing conditions here- but it is cold and wax moth supposedly are not that active in winter. Plus they would have a hard time burrowing through a flow frame!