Essential Cleaning or not?

[prittstick]

Is it essential to burn off ,as a good deal of keepers seem to do, the inside of supers and frames etc with a blowtorch?

Thanks
p

 

[oliver90owner]

Boxes at appropriate times - yes, of course. Don't try it on a plastic hive!

Frames? - Use them for kindling.

 

[Skyhook]

Is it essential to burn off ,as a good deal of keepers seem to do, the inside of supers and frames etc with a blowtorch?

Thanks
p

This is for disinfecting, so most important between colonies, eg if re-stocking a hive.

 

[Poly Hive]

Shock horror gasp.... Never done it ever.

PH

 

[The Cumbrian]

Shock horror gasp.... Never done it ever.

PH

You mean you don't use a blow lamp on your poly hives?

 

[xgeordie]

Or you could use diluted bleach - stand box in a tray, one side at a time. Won't do the wood any good, but then neither does a blow torch.

 

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Eastern Regional Research Lab tested the Thermal Resistance of Bacillus Larvae
AHB spores can withstand 100 degrees Centigrade (boiling point of water) for 160 minutes
110 C 230 F for 41 minutes
132 C 270 F for 1.9 minutes
They withstood beeswax at 100 C 212 F for 5 days. Dipping in melted beeswax is ineffective also.
"Although Burnside (1945) reported that "boiling for 30 minutes can be depended
upon to destroy the virulence of Bacillus larvae under ordinary conditions",
the authors have been advised (Hambleton, 1950) that any processing
of honey for bee feeding must guarantee absence of viable spores of this organism,
not simply destruction of virulence. Burnside (1940a) has reviewed the literature
on the heat resistance of B. larvae spores and investigated the thermal resistance
of the spores in diluted honey, water, and beeswax and in the dry state. He
reported growth in a culture of spores boiled in water or exposed to flowing steam
for 7 hours, boiled for 5 hours in 50 per cent honey, autoclaved in water at 15
pounds per square inch for 25 minutes or dry for 40 minutes, exposed to 98 C
dry heat for 2 days or in beeswax for 5 days at 100 C."
So a little scorching is false assurance!

 

[Poly Hive]

I mean I have never ever scorched anything to do with beekeeping. If you do not have disease what is the point?

PH

 

[Poly Hive]

I mean I have never ever scorched anything to do with beekeeping. If you do not have disease what is the point?

See above post #7. I think it is a big boys toys scenario, and as posted does not achieve much good either.

PH

 

[BeeJayBee]

...a little scorching is false assurance!

That's what I've been told - that using a blowtorch gently enough, so that it doesn't scorch the wood, could simply trap spores behind a layer of melted propolis without destroying them, especially in the corners.

More info in the NBU / Fera factsheets https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/index.cfm?pageid=167