Re-Queening & Where to store a super

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We got our first Flowhive Sept 2019, had an amazing season, so many good inspections, spotted our queen almost every time, super calm bees - we were inspecting in our shorts and T-shirts. As a bonus, we harvested 65kg honey between Nov-April! Happy waggle! Bees are the best!

Given the success, we went all out and got an additional 3 hives about a month ago.
Upon initial inspections two of them were ready for a super (lots of bees, lots of brood, honey flow is on).

Went to hang out with them yesterday, our Original Gang is bustling, looks like they’re headed for another great season, the next hive along is also flourishing, they’ve taken up full residence in the super - busy busy busy. Next hive along is building up and had great activity at the entrance, I think they’ll be begging for a super in a few weeks.

PartyHive at the end though have managed to become queenless, they’ve been occupying themselves bringing in some seriously beautiful pollen!

So I decided to give them the resources to create their own queen B. I removed 1 frame from the Original Gang - lots of brood in all stages, capped, grubs, eggs and swapped it out for one of the PartyHives lovely pollen frames - good trade I think. I swapped them in the same positions 4th from the right-hand wall. Also removed the super so they can focus on the family. The super didn’t have many bees at all maybe 100 so we placed in next to the hive for a few hours so they could all run home.

Looking for some guidance to where to store the super, I was thinking inside, in our study. Do you think I need to worry about wax moth? We have never had an issue with them in our hives. The super is empty - no honey, the girls had started to complete the comb so there is very minimal amounts of wax in those spots… tips? are we all good?

Sorry, I don’t have photos.

Thanks Sarah

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Hi @SarahandSam,

Has the requeened hive became hopelessly queenless? No eggs or larva of suitable age? If not, they may produce queen cells on other frames too. And you want them to use only “original” frame. This means you need to check if your “original” frame has cells and remove cells from other frames.

Pure wax has very little nutritional value for wax moth and not particularly attractive. Can you put it somewhere inside your house for storage?

May I get a queen cell from that frame? Of frame with eggs from the original hive? I will replace it new waxed frame. Please?

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yes it was hopeless!

haha yea sure. Where are you located? we’re keen to try a foundationless frame if you have one…

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yes thats our plan unless advised otherwise :slight_smile:

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That sounds fine, as long as it doesn’t get direct sun. The plastic degrades when exposed to UV light. You may have wax moth eggs on the frames, despite you not seeing any wax moth in the hive. Personally I would freeze the frames for 24 hours, then store them at room temperature. The freezing kills off any eggs, and it should also kill off small hive beetle (except you probably don’t have those in your region, yet…) :wink:

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