Hello,

Thanks for this question.

I normally suggest that people do not harvest honey from overwintered/deadout colonies for a number of reasons:

1. It can be very difficult to extract honey after the winter because honey may be crystallized in the comb
2. Mite treatments/medications: formic acid is allowed with honey supers on, but most other treatments/medications are not. You can read the label or check Honey Bee Health Coalition's Varroa Guide for more information.
3. Feeding/syrup: if you fed syrup while the box was on, your honey may be adulterated with syrup
4. Sometimes deadouts/overwintered colonies have icky things like mice nests, bee poop, and mold on frames that could contaminate the honey

You can reuse the frames from the deadouts for your new packages, assuming you don't suspect you had American Foulbrood in your operation (unlikely), which has spores that can remain in equipment/honey for deadouts. 

Strong, healthy colonies can clean mold off of frames. We normally recommend tossing the following frames:

1. Broodnest frames older than 4-6 years old: we encourage beekeepers to rotate out frames older than 4-6 years. Deadouts provide a nice opportunity to sort through frames. If you bought a nuc from another beekeeper, you may consider tossing the frames.
2. Frames full of pollen: it may feel counterintuitive to toss frames full of stored pollen given how important pollen is to bees, but stored pollen loses its nutritional values over time
3. Frames thick with mold: some mold on frames is fine, but if the mold is really thick it will take the bees a lot of work to clean them up.
4. Frames with dead brood: we don't really have enough information to know if frames with dead brood present a pathogen concern to a new colony, but given the lack of information, we often suggest tossing frames with dead brood as a precaution.

Happy beekeeping!

Thanks,

Hi Ann,

Strong colonies can clean moldy frames. Since you are starting with smaller colony units (packages), I'd probably give them a just couple of the cleanest honey frames to start. Once they have grown in population and you add an additional brood box, you could consider giving them more of the moldy frames. If the mold covers most of the frame, it may be easier to toss the frame than to give that cleaning work to your bees.

Thanks,



It's normally fine to feed honey frames to another colony if you don't suspect American Foulbrood disease and as long as the honey doesn't seem to be fermented. You can check uncapped cells for signs of fermentation by looking for bubbles and smelling the frame.



Hi Ann,

Small colonies can't handle formic acid treatments. You will need to wait until your package colony grows in population. 

Here is the Formic Pro label. The label must be followed; it is the law. It has information about colony size requirements, temperature, etc. There is also helpful information on the frequently asked questions about Formic Pro page from the manufacturer, NOD.

Happy beekeeping!

Hi Ann,

Happy to hear you were able to harvest honey from your bees!

Good question. Formic Pro's label says, "Do not disturb the colony during the treatment period (exception: removing and replacing strip at day +10 as outlined in Option 2)." 

So if the treatment is already in the hives, you should wait until the treatment period is over before adding the spun frames. The treatment period is either 14 days (2 strips at the same time) or 20 days (1 strip followed by another strip 10 days later).

If in the future you want to give spun frames to your bees before treatment or at the time of a treatment, I suggest contacting Formic Pro's manufacturer, NOD Apiary Products, to ask if they consider giving spun frames to be a form of feeding not allowed by the label.

Happy beekeeping!

I have been keeping bees for over 12 years. I struggle to figure out what to do when Hves die during the winter. I went into the winter with eight hives and at this point 5 are not living. At least three of the hives that are dead have a great deal of honey in them. What should be done with the frames of honey at this point?  Can I spin out the honey in the spring? Should I give the honey to the hives that survive the winter?

Sent from Ann's iPhone

Hi Ann,

Here is an article from Meghan Milbrath on Dealing with Deadouts.

I normally suggest that people do not harvest honey from overwintered/deadout colonies for a number of reasons:

1. It can be very difficult to extract honey after the winter because honey may be crystallized in the comb
2. Some treatments/medications cannot be used when honey supers (boxes that collect honey intended for human consumption) are on the hive. You can read the label or check Honey Bee Health Coalition's Varroa Guide for more information and to know which treatments are approved for use when honey supers are on the hives.
3. If you fed syrup while the box was on, your honey may be adulterated with syrup
4. Sometimes deadouts/overwintered colonies have icky things like mice nests, bee poop, and mold on frames that could contaminate the honey

You can reuse the frames from the deadouts for your new packages, assuming you don't suspect you had American Foulbrood in your operation, which has spores that can remain in equipment/honey for deadouts.

Deadouts provide a nice opportunity to sort through frames. If you bought a nuc from another beekeeper, you may consider tossing the following frames:

1. Broodnest frames older than 6 years old: we encourage beekeepers to rotate out frames older than 4-6 years. 
2. Frames full of pollen: it may feel counterintuitive to toss frames full of stored pollen given how important pollen is to bees, but stored pollen loses its nutritional values over time
3. Frames thick with mold: some mold on frames is fine, but if the mold is really thick it will take the bees a lot of work to clean them up.
4. Frames with dead brood: we don't really have enough information to know if frames with dead brood present a pathogen concern to a new colony, but given the lack of information, we often suggest tossing frames with dead brood as a precaution.

Happy beekeeping!

Thanks,

My bee  shed is full of ants. I have read that ants do not like peppermint and I am thinking of filling a lot of cotton balls with peppermint oil and spreading them around the bee shed. Will this be harmful at all to the honey bees?

Thank you.
Ann Allen

Sent from my iPad

Hi Ann,

Honey bees and ants are in the same insect order (Hymenoptera), so it's good to see that you are being thoughtful and careful. It sounds like the peppermint oil may repel ants, but isn't being used to damage/kill them.  As long as the cotton balls with peppermint oil aren't on flowers or in water, the bees shouldn't have much of a reason to come into contact with them. While some oils that come into direct contact with bees can harm them, if you are careful to place the oils where bees don't visit, I'm not aware of any harm that this method will cause to honey bees.