Clearing Pollen from Overwintered Brood Frames.

[Beefriendly]

Does anyone have a good solution to this?

I'm wracking my brains to little avail.
I end up in Spring with far too many stored frames with pollen that has gone mouldy over winter.
In the past I've tried brushing the mould off and stuck 'em back in hives but the pollen pellets now seem too hard and dense for the bees to remove easily.
I'm wondering about soaking/ agitating with heather honey loosener etc....

But thought it worth dipping into the collective forum knowledge base and ask if anyone has a neat or foolproof solution to this annual problem that allows all these valuable drawn brood frames to end up back in hive and cleaned up for HM to lay in?

They can be cleaned manually by removing each individual pellet of pollen....but life is too short for that approach....

 

[Millet]

If i was in that situation i would try soaking them upside down in warm water..

 

[For want of a better word]

Does anyone have a good solution to this?

I'm wracking my brains to little avail.
I end up in Spring with far too many stored frames with pollen that has gone mouldy over winter.
In the past I've tried brushing the mould off and stuck 'em back in hives but the pollen pellets now seem too hard and dense for the bees to remove easily.
I'm wondering about soaking/ agitating with heather honey loosener etc....

But thought it worth dipping into the collective forum knowledge base and ask if anyone has a neat or foolproof solution to this annual problem that allows all these valuable drawn brood frames to end up back in hive and cleaned up for HM to lay in?

They can be cleaned manually by removing each individual pellet of pollen....but life is too short for that approach....

Fuel for the Apimelter I am afraid!

 

[enrico]

Just leave them somewhere really dry. They dry out and just fall out of the cells either in powder or pellets in my experience.
E

 

[BMH]

Maybe try attaching a pollen trap to the colonies in late summer/autumn to try and reduce the amount stored, if its consistently an issue.

Or attach it early in the year i.e. now, to limit the amount going into the hive in the hope they use what they already have stored?

I sometimes have overwintered frames with some pollen in but it never seems to be mouldy.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

 

[JEP]

Does anyone have a good solution to this?

I'm wracking my brains to little avail.
I end up in Spring with far too many stored frames with pollen that has gone mouldy over winter.
In the past I've tried brushing the mould off and stuck 'em back in hives but the pollen pellets now seem too hard and dense for the bees to remove easily.
I'm wondering about soaking/ agitating with heather honey loosener etc....

But thought it worth dipping into the collective forum knowledge base and ask if anyone has a neat or foolproof solution to this annual problem that allows all these valuable drawn brood frames to end up back in hive and cleaned up for HM to lay in?

They can be cleaned manually by removing each individual pellet of pollen....but life is too short for that approach....

After extraction I sort through all the spare deep frames and those with the most pollen get put together into brood boxes and put over queen excluders on hives that are getting fed syrup. These hives are fed until the pollen clogged top box is full of syrup and capped over. These boxes are then removed and stored and the frames full of pollen and sealed stores are used to feed any light hives that need feeding in Feb or March. This keeps the pollen fresh and is cheaper than feeding candy.

I don't worry about stored frames with a bit of pollen in that develops a bloom of mould on top of the pollen. Just give them back to the bees and they sort it out for you.

If in the stored frames the pollen has gone rock hard, dry and grey then the bees find it hard to remove. In this case I just rake most of it out with a hive tool ripping the affected bits of comb down to the foundation. The bees soon repair the missing sections of comb as good as new and it is less work for them and you than replacing the whole comb with foundation.

 

[masterBK]

In time the pollen mite Carpoglyphus lactis will do it for you. The harmless astigmatid mite breaking the hard pellets down to powder which can be shaken out of the comb.
Under the microscope this powder can be seen to contain hundreds of these small pink 8 legged mites (0.4mm in length). This mite is also known as the prune mite (as it feeds off stored fermenting prunes) and as the dried fruit mite

http://idtools.org/id/mites/beemites/factsheet.php?name=15327

 

[iann41]

last year I stored a few brood boxes with brood frames containing a little capped honey, uncapped honey/nectar and pollen. My intention was to add these to my hives at the beginning of this season to aid expansion within the hive. The brood boxes were stacked with polythene separating each one to deter wax moth and foraging bees. When I came to check on the brood frames, ants had infiltrated the brood boxes and left the capped honey, ran off with the uncapped honey/nectar and dumped the pollen from the wax cells onto the polythene sheeting. Recovered a honey jar full.

 

[Beefriendly]

Gentlemen thank you all for taking the time and trouble to reply. There is a lot to ponder on...
Pollen floors had already been ordered.
I think a quick wash to remove the white mould will be the first step and then try several of the suggestions until I find one that works in my micro-climate.
Ian ...no mould...you lucky devil...I get it if stored outsider
or inside in garage/bee shed.
Alas indoors is not a viable action unless I wish to return to Bachelorhood.