General Discussions

They say frames of drawn comb are a beekeepers gold, but how do you secure this "gold" until next spring? Well let's take a step or two back to fill in some gaps.

After you have extracted honey from your frames, you have wet and sticky frames of drawn comb. Placing those frames back in a honey super for a few days will allow the bees to clean the comb of the sticky, residual honey. But, if you leave the comb in the hive you run the risk of being damaged by wax moths, hive beetles and other pests. So a key step in preserving the comb, the beekeeper's "gold," is to safe store the frames over the winter. How?

One approach is to remoive the drawn comb frames, freeze them for at least 48 hours to kill any pests and then store the frames in water tight containers. The challenge is each container can cost $20 or at Lowes or Home Depot. To my surprise, last week at Costco (Arundel Mills) I found 44QT (19.75 in x 15.75 in x 11 in) weatherproof stroage containers at Costco (Arundel Mills) for $9.49/container.

So if your looking for an cheaper way to storge your "gold" so that it can be used next spring to save the honey bees from having to make drawn comb and allow them to focus energy on foraging for nectar, you may want to get a few. Note: you may also want to get some moisture absorbing packets (Silica Gel) and place one in each container to absorb any residual moisture.