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Thread: Cleaning Frames for re-use

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    Default Cleaning Frames for re-use

    For those who don't have the room for a burco or other industrial size receptacle for boiling up frames, what do you do to clean recovered frames for re-use?

    I was thinking of getting a catering size soup/stock pan on the cheap from somewhere, getting the water to the boil on the cooker then transferring it to a mobile gas ring I have set up out in the back. Other than the obvious caveat about lugging a huge pan of boiling water out to the garden is this feasible? I don't have huge volumes of frames needing cleaning at the moment, but if I don't start to get on top of it soon I will have (and I need more frames!).

    As a linked question, if you're recovering frames that have combs of brood, do you bother trying to reclaim the wax or just chuck it? I hear chickens are supposed to be very good at clearing these kind of frames but my only encounter with them tends to involve a secret blend of herbs and spices.

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    Senior Member EmsE's Avatar
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    I've been clearing mine just by scraping any wax and propolis off with a knife as I don't have a container big enough to take a frame, let alone a few of them. It is time consuming but as I don't have many to do yet, it's not been too bad- quite therapeutic actually.
    I've given up on trying to extract the wax from brood combs until I build a solar extractor. (My chickens won't go anywhere a frame from the hive) Once the extractor is built I'm hoping I can use it to use it to clean the wax off the frames too?

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    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nellie View Post
    ... As a linked question, if you're recovering frames that have combs of brood, do you bother trying to reclaim the wax or just chuck it? ...
    I've been trying to extract the wax from brood combs using a double boiler - but all I got was slumgum, hardly any wax at all (and I did not even think the combs were that old yet) - so that wasn't worth the effort. I then used the remaining old combs as fire lighters. Last year I put some on the compost heap. As far as I know they've composted away.

    Kitta

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    Senior Member chris's Avatar
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    I cut out the wax that cuts out easily, then blowtorch the frame letting all the wax that's left run off.When the frame looks nicely scorched (like my fingertips) I judge it ready.If the wax cut out seems ok, then it goes in a bin for use as starter strips. Otherwise I just throw it out.

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    I've got a few colonies on old comb that I'm intending to change this year. For a few frames I've used scorching before, but I just didn't fancy having to do 20-30+ frames using scrape and scorch if I didn't have to, especially as one colony in particular has a lot of chalk brood which I'm keen to make sure doesn't get recycled back into another colony down the line.

    don't really like the idea of losing that wax, but perhaps with combs containing brood the best option is to just bag and bin them?

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    Senior Member EmsE's Avatar
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    If there's any sign of disease etc, I'd just bin them otherwise you'll keep the infection and risk it spreading to other hives.

    When I've tried to recover wax from the brood comb by soaking it in rain water then heating, hardly any wax was recovered and felt it was both a waste of time and gas. I've read that the solar extractor recovers more so am going to give it a go and if not that great then at least I'll have something to clean my frames with without ruining my kitchen knife..... That is if we get any sun over in the west this year, it's been pretty poor so far

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    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nellie View Post
    I've got a few colonies on old comb that I'm intending to change this year. For a few frames I've used scorching before, but I just didn't fancy having to do 20-30+ frames using scrape and scorch if I didn't have to ...
    In this thread we talked about using acetic acid when re-using brood frames. So, if you don't want to scorch those 30-odd frames, can't you use the acetic acid treatment on all those empty frames? Does it matter that they're without comb? That said - I haven't yet treated any frames with acetic acid, so I don't know whether it's an easier option.
    Kitta

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    Quote Originally Posted by EmsE View Post
    If there's any sign of disease etc, I'd just bin them otherwise you'll keep the infection and risk it spreading to other hives.
    Hence wanting to boil them. Anything more serious than a bit of chalk brood and I'd agree with you.

    I was going to use acetic acid on the super frames but I'll double check whether it's effective against Chalk brood.

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    Senior Member EmsE's Avatar
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    The frames, I agree with but I still wouldn't recover any of the wax from the brood comb even with chalk brood, unless it was a really light case- I just don't think it would be worth it.

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    That seems to be the general consensus. I don't re-use brood wax for beekeeping, it's strictly for polish, candles etc. The solar extractor's done a pretty good job of separating out the wax from old brood frames without brood, but I'd imagine brood in that would be pretty disgusting to have to deal with. A whole brood box worth of frames should yield a reasonable amount of wax though and seems a shame to chuck it away.

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