How to store full supers before extraction?

[MandF]

One of my hives had starting uncapping/moving some frames off the top (of 3) supers. They were putting new nectar into the middle super (which had wets put back in a few weeks back).

As I saw them starting to eat/move the capped stuff I decided to take off the 4 frames left I thought were suitable to be extracted (before they got too far into them too), moved another 7 frames into a super and put above the crown board so they will clean these out and I will be left with 4 capped frames, and 7 clean drawn frames to store over winter.

The second hive still seems to be going strong and making honey, so I am confident of getting at least another 7 capped frames in the next week or so.

So, at the moment I have the 4 capped (to various degrees) frames in the house, in a super, sealed in a bin liner, and it just occurred to me that I could get condensation, and possibly mould start to form, so I just wanted to check what the preferred way of storing capped & partially capped frames was, for a few weeks.

I want to keep them clean and away from bees/wasps/spiders/ants etc, but ideally would leave them to the air so they could also actually dry out the uncapped honey a bit more in case its still a bit "wet", hence the question.

Thanks

Mark

 

[RoseCottage]

Mark,
If I can extract honey I do, rather than leave it around. We store sugar syrup supers in large clear plastic 110ltre storage boxes bought off e bay.
Not sure anyone other than the bees can reduce water content very efficiently...if I have any doubts about a frame it stays in the hive until we (i and the bees) agree its ready.
All the best,
Sam

 

[MandF]

Mark,
If I can extract honey I do, rather than leave it around. We store sugar syrup supers in large clear plastic 110ltre storage boxes bought off e bay.
Not sure anyone other than the bees can reduce water content very efficiently...if I have any doubts about a frame it stays in the hive until we (i and the bees) agree its ready.
All the best,
Sam

Hmm,

We have a plastic storage tub, maybe we should put the frames in there for now, and hope we dont get too much propolis on it.

Leaving the frames on was not an option as the bees decided they wanted it back, probably to backfill the brood box.

I have read about people evaporating off supers/honey to reduce the water content, so it can be done, in our case I dont think it is necessary anyway as I shook the frames and there was only a little drop out on the edge of one of the frames - so over all I am confident the water content is well below 20%