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Help~Ressurecting abandoned hive

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Posted by thosedarnsqurls Up-State NY 5 (My Page) on
Fri, Jun 20, 08 at 14:32

My beekeeper has moved, and left the hive/boxes behind.

Last year a wild swarm came in & set up house, thrived for the Summer, but then abandoned ship sometime during late Fall or early Spring.

We';ve taken apart the boxes and started cleaning them out, but there is alot of comb and honey left in the top box.

My question(s) are,..........
-WHAT do we do now to clean the box and prepare it for new bees. (How much honey & comb do we leave, for example?)
-How do we set up a new hive,...what materials are needed. (We are lucky to have a wonderful beekeeping supplier, "Betterbee" near us.) Just need some good, easy to understand advice on how to proceed.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Private emails welcome
ThoseDarnSqurls@aol.com

Dawn

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RE: Help~Ressurecting abandoned hive

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The safest way to proceed is to start over with a clean hive box. The fact that bees came in and died off (more likely than left), means the mites probably got them, but there is a possibility mean something else nastier is there, like foul brood, which infects the box.

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And by the way

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Take the frames with honey and put them in trash can bags, and tie them tightly so no air can get in, and put them in a freezer overnight. This is to kill any wax moth eggs that are there. Hatched out, wax moths cause an incredible mess. Take them out of the freezer and let them come to room temperature before you open the bag. The bag treatment is to keep them from becoming damp from condensation (corrections welcome from others here).

I'll let another beekeeper tell you whether to use the honey for another hive.

Better Bee can tell you exactly what you need.

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