I obtained my first bee hive, traditional Langstrothm, last season. But we live in the Pacific Northwest where it is very wet. I talked with local beekeepers regarding how to keep the moisture down, but it did not work. We had and are still having, a very long wet, cold winter. It snowed this morning and the temps are from 30-45 degrees. I lost my hive due to condensation. I performed a hive autopsy to make sure there were no other issues. I now have built a quilt box to use when I get my new hive.
My question is, can I use the brood comb and honey frames from the dead hive when I get my new package of bees? There was a very small amount of mold on the frames I saved. The more moldy ones, I scraped clean and I will clean them thoroughly before they are used again. I also took the clean brood comb and the frames with honey on them and put them in the freezer until I get my bees.
And if I can use them for my new package of bees, how should I arrange them in my hive, and how many should I use? I just purchased a new Flow Hive 2+ and my new bees will go in there.
Hi.
If the only reason for hive loss is condensation, the frames will be fine to use. Brood frames in the middle and honey on the edge. The bees will clean any remaining mould. @FrederickDunn has a good YouTube channel and lives in your area.
Good insulation under the roof should stop condensation dripping on the cluster and instead, cause it to drip down the hive walls.
I should add, the only reasons I can think of to not reuse frames is if a hive got foulbrood.
What was your mite count? Do you have a plan in place for varroa treatment?
Hi & welcome to the forum.
My thoughts would be to use the honey frames, but not the brood frames if they contain brood. If the brood frames don’t contain brood, well maybe I’d use them.
There was a similar topic recently where someone had bee packages abscond on them. In that situation, the person had used old brood frames that even contained dead bees.
I frequently have to get bees to clean up dead brood in brood frames out of laying worker hives, where there is drone brood in worker comb. I damage the brood, before giving the frames to strong established colonies, however only one frame per colony, on account of the work involved for the bees to clean the frames up. It’s a hive beetle strategy, because dead brood is a magnet for hive beetles.
There is no problem using old brood comb and it sounds as if the mold issue is minor. To increase your chances of success, try installing a 3lb package…and better still is a 4lb package.! A 4lb package will clean out any issues such as mold and dead capped brood immediately. Package bees shipped to the state of Alaska are almost exclusively 4lb packages and they have some good honey production from mostly native flowers. That is a real feat and a testament to the potential of 4lb packages.
And as has been mentioned above, check for the black colored foulbrood scale. Foulbrood is a most contentious issue.
Here is a photo of some 4lb packages waiting to be installed on our trailers…they produced harvestable volumes of honey and pollen off the early spring nectar sources, namely dandelion and willow. The hives had pollen traps on as bottom boards at the time of installation. And they can be installed in 2 brood boxes…one on top of the other…just use an insulated lid to keep them warm.
Sorry for the delayed response, thank you all for the info. My mite count was low , but we treated per protocol. I found none in the hive when i did my hive autopsy. Thanks again for your help. My 3 lb. Package should be here soon , wish me luck!!!
I also did not see any foul brood, but I will double check. I just feel bad not using the frames that the bees worked so jard to make. But I also dont want to put my mew bees at risk.
Hi Jen, I’m thinking that the brood frames could be kept in the freezer a bit longer. My reason being that you could give them, one at a time to the colony once it has become established with a decent amount of brood. A colony usually wont abscond while it has a decent amount of brood to look after.
In doing so, you’re still giving the bees the frames they worked so hard to make, except over a longer period of time.
Thank you so much! That is a good idea.