Yesterday I harvested honey from my hive for the first time, got a really big jar of honey just from this one frame after scraping it down. But now I am not sure what to do with the frame - do I need to clean it before putting it back in the hive, remove all the wax from the plastic? And how should it bef cleaned?
Or can I just put it back in the hive and the bees will just start building on what's already here?
Pic related is the frame after honey removal
same way you clean out the boxes - set it next to a fire and let it melt everything off, or put them in boiling water. just don't melt the plastic or burn the wood.
Never heard that one before, but I could see it working I guess.
Yup. And find a local beekeeper to mentor you.
Just. Ew.
Pure honey comb wax is white, like parafen wax. Bees reuse their wax, the black coloration comes from cycle upon cycle of bee larvae poop. Also, wax is hard on the stomach. If you are going to, just chew on it like gum and spit it out after the residual taste of honey is gone.... But I wouldn't because well... Poop.
Yes you can put it back in like that, but I recommend bagging it and putting it in the freezer for a week. A trash bag will be fine. Any shb eggs that might be in the wax will be killed off this way.
>Never heard that one before, but I could see it working I guess.
bruh, it's literally what every beekeeper in history does. make a fire, and then stack the hive boxes and frames above the fire so that they get enveloped in the smoke but don't burn. everything melts off and is sanitized from the heat.
OP here. I gave the panel a wash in boiling water and a scrub with a rough wire brush. They are drying at the moment. There's basically no wax left on the frames though but I like the idea about freezing them just in case.
I did cut the wax comb right off the frame, but the plastic panel I posted in OP already has a honeycomb patten in it. It's how the panels are I guess, perhaps it's easier for the bees to start building
I see, can you do anything with the wax once it's all dark like that? Candles maybe?
Why are you keeping bees if you don't even know how to take care of them? Go to the fricking library and check out a beekeeping book.
eat the comb, dumdum
just stopping by to ask, can beekeepers not just cut the wax right out from the frame? I thought bees make honeycombs, so the honeycomb pattern should just be part of the wax and you can cut it out, unless the honeycomb is actually part of the frame?
esl here, i don't know all the right words related to beekeeping but bear with me.
Usually you can return frame to the beehive intact after honey harvesting if the wax is "fresh" (is not dark or brown). If the beewax is older, replace the frame with a new one (you can melt the beewax and sell it for wax foundations) Also your frame looks really messy, how did you harvest the honey? I would advise against putting a frame that is smeard with honey back into the beehive as it can draw attention of ants or thieving bees from other hives.
I harvested the honey by scraping and removed as much wax I could from the plastic panel - that's in the op photo. I don't have a spin centrifuge thing.
After that I washed it in hot water, but I couldn't get all the black wax out of the plastic. I guess this must be a really old panel.
How do you melt the beeswax? And is it ok to melt the black wax too?
Why. Just uncap the top layer, grab honey and put back in the box. The bees will have it cleaned up in a day and already start refilling it. You scrap the beeswax and you lose months waiting g for them to rebuild.
This actually is the easiest solution. Will do this in the future. Thanks.
I also have a general beekeeping question now. After I inspected the hive and took the panel from the honey super it's been a few days. But now I noticed that there is a larger amount of bees hanging around on the landing panel not really doing much. Before however, the landing panel was usually rather empty compared to what it is now. What could cause them to do this?
They were just robbed of honey, so they put up more guards.
Just give it back to the bees. They will clean everything up.