One said to remove the paper liner and throw away. I thought the paper liner is where the bees lay their eggs, so just what are they talking about?

After tube is filled and sealed by bee it is removed from the block at a later date. You need to wait till the egg has developed into a cocoon. I usually wait until next season Late Feb early March) and remove the full tube and replace with a fresh tube.

There is also something about �cleaning� the cocoons.
What are they talking about there, and how?

I don't do this for what it is worth. I only deal with about three cups of cocoons.

Then there is the fact of the tubes they come out of. Since they don�t all come out at the same time and some not at all, they start going right back in again to spend the night, lay eggs etc. As they come out when it is still nippy out, some stay in while others come and go, so how do you get rid of the old tubes without messing with the bees that are still in, going back it etc?

I remove the cocoons from the tubes and place them in a 1/2 gal milk box with a couple of exit holes for a hatching chamber That seems to work OK. This way the bees have new empty chambers to fill and are ready to get to work.

Hope that helps.

search this forum for my user name for links to photoalbum links and previous threads.