Hi Hugh. I am a winemaker as well. I made about 40 gallons of apple wine and 15 of pear last Autumn. That was another 50+ kilos of sugar on top of the 100+ that went to the bees last year. Bee equipment can be reused subject to various caveats. The big worry is AFB as it makes bacterial spores which are extremely resilient and can remain viable for decades. For most of the other bee ailments, scorching equipment with a blowtorch should get rid of the nasties. Obviously you can't do this with frames and wax so the best way to clean them up is to expose them to 80% acetic acid for a week. To do this, you put a brood box on a solid floor inside a binbag in order to seal it up. The frames to be fumigated are then put inside the brood box and an eke or a super is placed above it. About 100ml of acetic acid is placed directly above the frames in a container such as a margerine tub which has something absorbant inside it like as a piece of old sponge. Then put a lid on, seal it all up and leave for a week. The acetic fumes are heavier than air and as it evaporates it will fill the interior of the brood box and kill things like nosema spores very effectively. I did this earlier this afternoon with two boxes full of old frames. You need to be careful with the acid as it is strong stuff.
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