Storing Brood Frames

[BillyGoat]

The brood box taken off my hive for winter had frames with partial amounts of pollen which have now gone mouldy and are ruined. I guess I will now have to strip the frames a rewax for next year unless there is a magic cure?

Can anyone offer advice on how to handle and store these for the future.

Thanks
Billy

 

[xgeordie]

There have been a number of threads on this e.g. scrape off the pollen cells before storing or freeze the frames if you have the space, or use sulphur strips etc

 

[VEG]

Any frames with pollen in will get some mould if not in the hive. Only way I know to keep them without them going mouldy is in the freezer.

 

[oliver90owner]

a magic cure?

Just wash/scrape off/spray those areas affected. The bees will rebuild the wax.

Work your old frames (ones to be replaced) to those areas next year, if you are worried about a few sheets of foundation with some pollen in them. They may look bad, but the bees will generally clean them up, especially if given some assistance.

RAB

 

[mbc]

My no.1 favourite method of storing brood frames is to let the bees do it, likewise to get moldy pollen cleaned up = let the bees do it. A good strong box of bees will turn a manky looking lot of frames into tickity boo, perfectly servicable frames in no time( given there's enough bees and some incentive for them to do it e.g. a flow or feed to store or an expanding brood nest)
Any used brood frames are a magnet to wax moths so I prefer to have them on bees( obviously making sure-as always-if moving brood frames between hives there's no likelyhood of transfering disease)

 

[Swarm]

Any bits of old/manky pollen I get most of it out with a toothpick, the bees will sort the rest.

 

[BillyGoat]

Thanks to all who replied with advice.

Will try the clean and scrape and give them back to the bees to sort.

Billy