Swapping brood frames

[jonnybeegood]

I am planning on changing 3frames in my 14x12 hives at the start of brood laying, i thought if there was any honey stores in them i could cut this out & feed back to the bees in a feeder, the rest of the frame i was planning on melting the wax to reuse.
My question is should i cut out any pollen stored & give that to them with the honey, & if there are any brood in the rest of the frame do i just freeze the frames then melt & filter as usual?

 

[Erichalfbee]

There may be a lot of ivy honey which might be difficult to extract.
Why not crush and strain the whole lot then any pollen there would just get mixed in which would be OK for the bees.
If there is brood there I would leave it in the hive, but that's unlikely in outside frames early in the year.

 

[REDWOOD]

You could store the frames and feed back to the bees when needed, handy to have ready when making up nucs. Drawn comb is a valuable commodity for any beekeeper.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Pop them in the freezer.
That way any pollen will stay fresh.

 

[jonnybeegood]

You could store the frames and feed back to the bees when needed, handy to have ready when making up nucs. Drawn comb is a valuable commodity for any beekeeper.

Yes but the idea is to get rid of all combs over 3 years so i dont want to be using them elsewhere, the idea is to help cut down the risk of disease.

 

[Madge]

Take out old, but empty, brood combs - not filled honey combs. You'll probably find a few empty ones on your first spring visit.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Take out old, but empty, brood combs - not filled honey combs. You'll probably find a few empty ones on your first spring visit.

Wont the empty ones be less likely to have any chance of disease? I thought i am better taking ones out that have been used the most? Not that i have any disease problems, just cutting risks.

 

[Davelin]

I burn my old brood frames.


If they are removed as regular frame replacement you don't want to be putting them in nucs. The hassle and mess to retrieve a bit of gruddy wax and cleaning the frames for re use is not worth the effort in my opinion

 

[oliver90owner]

at the start of brood laying

Never amazes me how some do not remember, or never read of how to remove frames which are no longer needed.

There is a well tried and tested way to change frames, so no need to try to re-invent it. Read up on changing deep nuc frames when initially installing them in extra deeps. Nothing new needed and needs planning, certainly not just changing drawn combs for foundation. There are many simple ways to make it very hard for the bees to expand numbers in spring and yours is one of them.

 

[Madge]

Wont the empty ones be less likely to have any chance of disease? I thought i am better taking ones out that have been used the most? Not that i have any disease problems, just cutting risks.

Old frames used for brood rearing are the most likely places where disease might lurk and the frames that had been used most - think of all those generations of larvae being cared for in those cells. You don't need to remove good-looking empty frames.

In late summer, in preparation for the following spring, move old and disfigured brood combs to the outside of the brood nest (but not away from the cluster). Do it in little steps, one frame at a time. In spring they are likely to be empty and you can exchange them for new foundation or healthy drawn comb.

Later in the season, if you want to remove honey frames to give the queen more space for laying, then do as Redwood or Erichalfbee suggested.
Kitta

 

[Madge]

I burn my old brood frames.

... The hassle and mess to retrieve a bit of gruddy wax and cleaning the frames for re use is not worth the effort in my opinion

I was surprised when I got my steamer how much wax can be retrieved from old frames. It's worth it, I think - particularly if you steam a whole box of frames in one go.

But I agree - keeping the frames might not be worth the time and effort in cleaning them up.

 

[jonnybeegood]

I was surprised when I got my steamer how much wax can be retrieved from old frames. It's worth it, I think - particularly if you steam a whole box of frames in one go.

But I agree - keeping the frames might not be worth the time and effort in cleaning them up.

yes I will probably burn the frames then & keep the wax. I had a second hand super full of old empty drawn comb which I melted down & filtered I got one of those plastic takeaway cartons full of pure wax so it was worth doing I thought for a little work, scraping & flaming the old frames took quite a bit longer which I wont be doing again I doubt.

 

[jonnybeegood]

There may be a lot of ivy honey which might be difficult to extract.
Why not crush and strain the whole lot then any pollen there would just get mixed in which would be OK for the bees.
If there is brood there I would leave it in the hive, but that's unlikely in outside frames early in the year.

I was kind of hoping any ivy honey would have been stored in the super as the brood box was full then but I guess as the queen slowed down laying there would have been room made to store it. I will see whats there when I look in when the time comes, I just wanted to know what I was doing beforehand so I was prepared. Thank you all, except sarky oliver as usual.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Remember to keep an empty used brood frame for a bait hive.