Cleaning frames after melting out comb?

[Alabamaeee]

I am melting my granulated super combs.

I cut them out but there is wax and honey left on the frames. What is the best way to clean the frames of the residue?

 

[oliver90owner]

Immersion in water at around boiling point (recover wax, dissolve honey)), possibly followed by a washing soda or caustic soda immersion at a similar temperature (disslove wax and propolis), followed by water-washing and bleaching before drying carefully.

I don't reckon there are many pathogens left on my cleaned frames after those treatments.

Now, if you only have one or two - dump them and replace with new. Cheap as chips in the Th*rne sale less than 50p a throw. The frames will make good firelighting kindling, too, if you have a 'recycling' use such as that.

You could simply scrape them clean if you wanted to.

Regards, RAB

 

[Chris Luck]

I carefully use a hot air gun, you know, the type for stripping paint. It leaves a thin film but it's enough to clear the slot for foundation etc.

Chris

 

[Alabamaeee]

Thanks Rab,

I'll probably dump them!

I also have about 20 old frames that are drawn but are very black. Are they usable or should I melt the wax out and dump them?

All these newbee things are a steep learning curve, but I am really enjoying it.

Sadly I have about 20lbs of honey from the melting, but the process took 4 hrs and even then I had to increase the temp to a point where the wax eventually melted.

I am happy to feed to the bees but not sure if it is OK for them as I read somewhere that over heated honey can do them harm?

After all this I learned an important lesson. Never go on holiday during the OSR season

 

[plumberman]

Thanks Rab,

I'll probably dump them!

I also have about 20 old frames that are drawn but are very black. Are they usable or should I melt the wax out and dump them?

All these newbee things are a steep learning curve, but I am really enjoying it.

Sadly I have about 20lbs of honey from the melting, but the process took 4 hrs and even then I had to increase the temp to a point where the wax eventually melted.

I am happy to feed to the bees but not sure if it is OK for them as I read somewhere that over heated honey can do them harm?

After all this I learned an important lesson. Never go on holiday during the OSR season

I invested in a large wax renderer from a well known company - can fit 10 shallow frames in at a time. 10minutes and each one is completely stripped of wax, honey and propolis. Not an autoclave, but most likely all pathogens will be killed by this process as well.

Saves a lot of faffing....

 

[WaxManSmokerBoy]

Don't tell me, it's a wallpaper stripper from ScrewFix?

I should save your frames, once you have increased your colony count to 12 or so, then you will begin to wish that you had considered a strategy for dealing with them. Store them now and deal with them as and when.

A slightly modified J-tool would be good for scraping the grooves, after steaming/cleaning. It probably needs a bit of heat treatment to put an offset bend in it and a little grinding of the J to make it into a good scraper.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I put the frames in a low fan oven for five minutes just to soften the wax but not melt it then used a small screwdriver in the grooves. Voila!

 

[For want of a better word]

Make mead from the honey.... better to use it yourself...as it may give the bees hiccups!

 

[huntsman666]

Four tools and a bit of elbow grease does the job for me.

A dog-legged scraping tool to clean out the grooves.

A small snips to pull out the botton brads.

A hivetool as a scraper.

A penknife to clear the top slot.

Do it when they're coldish, then propolis also scrapes off nicely.

 

[Alabamaeee]

thanks for the replies.

WaxMan, your scraper tool gave me a flashback to my apprenticeship. We had to cut perspex for a project but had no power tools, so we ground part of a hacksaw blade into a hook shape and were able to cut the perspex using several cuts followed by a break like the way glass is snapped after scoring.

A suitable width of hacksaw balde could be adapted as a nice groove cleaner for frames

 

[czar1960]

I use a hoof pick to clean the groove it work very well.

 

[Luminos]

I use a hoof pick to clean the groove it work very well.

A clean one I hope