Cleaning Poly hives after Efb

[pargyle]

I have poly hives but only the brood boxes and and supers. s. I change the and scorch the floors twice in the year. You don't need double the kit. Lay the brood box to one side and scrape and scorch the floor and replace the brood box. Scorch or wash the hive tool between hives. It's a bit time consuming but hey ho!!

I change and clean my Paynes Poly floors every five years whether they need it or not... the bees keep them clean in between and the odd spider underneath keeps any other inhabitants from taking up residence. But, of course, I'm not a proper beekeeper ...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The one I’ve purchased comes in 5l tubs. It’s £32 for 20l. If I need 30l of the stuff, it’s getting expensive!

not as expensive as paying to dispose of the old poly boxes in a category 1 landfill site and replacing all the kit.

 

[Foxylad]

Just to be clear, for 150l of water I need 30l of 15% sodium hypochlorite.

I need to do around 15 nucs 6 poly supers and 2 complete poly hives.
All my qe are plastic and I’ve insulated crown boards. Which also require washing.

It maybe more cost effective in future to use caustic soda.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Just to be clear, for 150l of water I need 30l of 15% sodium hypochlorite.

I need to do around 15 nucs 6 poly supers and 2 complete poly hives.
All my qe are plastic and I’ve insulated crown boards. Which also require washing.

It maybe more cost effective in future to use caustic soda.

NO! As I said late last night to achieve the 0.5% solution recomended by the NBU you need 5 litres in 145litres of water!!!!!!! FFS

 

[JamezF]

As I said late last night to achieve the 0.5% solution recomended by the NBU you need 5 litres in 145litres of water

Quite. If you want a 3% solution then it's 30 litres of hypochlorite and 120 litres of water. For a 0.5% solution then it's as Neil said.

I don't know why Laurence comes uses a 3% figure though. It sounds as though he might have become confused between different parts of the NBU document now I've actually dug it out. What it says is:

"Sodium hypochlorite is present at a concentration of about 3% in household bleach. Research has shown that immersion for twenty minutes in a solution of 0.5% sodium hypochlorite kills AFB spores and other bacteria. In this case you therefore need to make a solution of one part household bleach to five parts water."

Later in the same paragraph it then says:

"Laboratory studies conducted at Fera Science Limited (Fera) suggest that other chemical disinfectants may be useful for general sterilisation, but further tests are required to ensure these are effective against foulbrood infection, especially AFB spores."

Perhaps that's why he says it won't work for AFB when they say it will, and where he's got the 3% figure from, forgetting that it also says to water it down further.

So go with Neil's figures.

James

 

[Foxylad]

Ok, thank you

 

[Black Mountain Honey]

Good to see my GCSE maths is serving me well

Apologies for the error. I'll have to sort it out over the winter

 

[Newbeeneil]

Good to see my GCSE maths is serving me well

Apologies for the error. I'll have to sort it out over the winter

It happens to us all Laurence (seems to get worse with age!) but it must have cost you a lot in extra sodium hypochlorite!
Beautiful looking clean boxes though

 

[Black Mountain Honey]

It happens to us all Laurence (seems to get worse with age!) but it must have cost you a lot in extra sodium hypochlorite!
Beautiful looking clean boxes though

Damn those boxes were clean and my clothes were bleach stained. No EFB (or AFB) on me though - or the boxes! LOL

Took me AGES working it out as well ;0

 

[hemo]

The 0.5% ratio = 5000ppm, the recommended strength for sterilising poly.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

This is what happens to a brand new pair of trousers when you slip whilst decanting 11% dairy hypoclorite from a 25 litre drum

 

[Newbeeneil]

Damn those boxes were clean and my clothes were bleach stained. No EFB (or AFB) on me though - or the boxes! LOL

Took me AGES working it out as well ;0

You should have asked on the forum first!

 

[Erichalfbee]

This is what happens to a brand new pair of trousers when you slip whilst decanting 11% dairy View attachment 37502hypoclorite from a 25 litre drum

Good job you weren’t wearing shorts

 

[Gilberdyke John]

not as expensive as paying to dispose of the old poly boxes in a category 1 landfill site and replacing all the kit.

I wonder how much polystyrene is quietly burnt after dark. Even being a lightweight material id expect it to be measured in multiples of tonnes

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Good job you weren’t wearing shorts

I don't think that even neat Hypochlorite would get my legs much whiter

 

[hemo]

This is what happens to a brand new pair of trousers when you slip whilst decanting 11% dairy View attachment 37502hypoclorite from a 25 litre drum

Trendy teens would pay a fortune for bleach effect jeans.

 

[Foxylad]

For Soda Crystals NBU recommends 1:5. Is that 30kgs in 150l?

 

[Foxylad]

NM, found it. The ratio is 1kg to 25l.

 

[JamezF]

For Soda Crystals NBU recommends 1:5. Is that 30kgs in 150l?

Well, when you're talking about dry stuff it gets a bit more complicated because then you have the option of comparing weight to weight, weight to volume or volume to volume, and in fact in the case of hypochlorite you'll often see on the label that it's, say, "10% w/w", which is 10% when comparing weight with weight. Fortunately in the case of water, one litre weighs one kilo so it's not as complicated as it could be.

However, the answer does depend on whether you want to end up with 150 litres of solution, or you want to add the right amount of soda crystals to 150 litres of water. In the latter case it's fairly simple: you want 1kg of soda crystals for every 5 litres (or kg) of water, so 30kgs is correct. If you want to end up with 150 litres of solution it's harder to say because obviously adding the washing soda will increase the volume, but not by the same number of litres as its weight.

Assuming you're mixing everything together as per Laurence's video then in the interests of simplicity and probably getting the result "good enough", I'd probably go with 5 litres of hypochlorite into 145 litres of water and then add 30kg of soda crystals.

James

 

[JamezF]

NM, found it. The ratio is 1kg to 25l.

I can't see how that relates to 1:5. For cleaning tools etc. between hives then I think it's 1kg to 5 litres (I can't definitely recall -- I usually end up having to look it up), which would be 1:5.

1kg soda crystals to 25 litres of water would be 1:25.

James