Hello everyone. I live in Nebraska and I have a question that I would love to have some input on. I am going to harvest honey from my super this week and was wondering what I do with the frames that I extracted the honey from. I only have 1 colony and I would like to place the harvested honey frames in front of my Langstroth for the bees to clean up. However, when I pull the super to harvest the honey, I am going to treat for varroa mites using Apiguard. I was told to not have the supers near the hive when using Apiguard so as not to contaminate the super. Keep in mind that I will have all the honey harvested for human consumption. I just want the bees to clean up the residual honey and comb. Will the Apigaurd contaminate by shallow honey super for when I want to use it again next year or will I be OK? Secondly, what is the best method for storing my shallow honey super over the winter and spring? Do I put my shallow in a sealed garbage bag to avoid pests getting in to my super? thank you everyone.
Hi Brian, I have not personally used Apiguard, but it’s my understanding that it’s made of thymol. Trace amounts of it will end up everywhere in a hive treated with it, and could possibly lend a slight thyme fragrance to honey extracted from it down the line. I think you’re right to assume that bees flying to and from the extracted super you want to place in front of the hive could also transfer some of it to those super frames and the wax left on them. How detectable will it be? Hard to say. If you want to give the Apiguard a chance to distribute through the hive and thus perhaps be less likely to transfer in a concentrated form, you could store those extracted frames in the freezer and put them out after some decent interval.
I’m hoping you hear from others with actual experience with this procedure, but do try the US based forums where mite treatment is probably discussed more frequently and in more seasonally pertinent detail.
Thank you Eva. I believe that is the approach i will take.