Author Topic: freezing frames  (Read 1860 times)

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Offline rober

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freezing frames
« on: August 01, 2020, 06:13:00 pm »
this comes up from time to time. online searches have varying results. one site said 4 hours at 9* F. what do y'all consider to be the minimum time time frame to freeze frames to kill beetle & moth eggs & larva. my 7.3 cubic foot freezer will hold 20-40 frames depending on their size. something i noticed recently though because i have some food items off to the side is that when i load the freezer with 30 warm frames it takes awhile for the temperature to get back down to temperature so i need to add 12 hours to any recommended times. since my yard has grown i have a lot of frames to freeze.

Offline Zweefer

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2020, 06:27:17 pm »
I always throw my cut comb frames in for a day or two. 24 hours minimum... it just usually takes 2 for me to get around to getting the next step going...
Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
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Offline rober

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2020, 07:41:38 pm »
i have 45 extracted supers stacked up & 50 more to extract. yesterday while loading i found a moth larva. since it's going to take 3 weeks to cycle all these frames thru the freezer i worrying about damaged frames. i might spray them with BT while they sit. only thing about that is BT does not protect from beetle larva.

Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2020, 09:03:45 pm »
rober, how about putting some of the supers back on the hives until you can get them in the freezer.  Your bees will take care of the SHB and larvae.  Especially the really strong colonies.  Maybe only 1-2 supers on the weaker colonies.  It doesn't help if you want to do mite treatments right away.  I think a minimum of 48 hours in the freezer should take care of the pests and their eggs.

Offline Zweefer

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2020, 10:13:53 pm »
I see where you are coming from then... I assume your screen is greater than 200 micron then?  The sub larvae eggs are 1.4 x .26 mm (260 micron) so they could get through a traditional25 mwah (750 micron) strainer... if you had the finer filter (200 micron), perhaps you could extract then freeze to be on the safe side?
I could be way off here.. let me know if my sleep deprived brain is missing something?
Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
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Offline Jen

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2020, 10:26:59 pm »
Hi Rober, I freeze at least 48 hours. Sometimes I have 7-8 frames leaning up against each other. Often times the frames are left in there and forgotten for a couple weeks or so.
'
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Offline rober

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2020, 11:14:03 pm »
i guess i could put some back on the hives here at the house.
zweefer- about the microns? are you saying larva could hatch in the honey? i have a double stainless sieve that is 1000 & then 700 microns sitting over a 400 micron filter. this has so much pollen in it that it's clogging the 400 micron filter.

Offline Zweefer

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2020, 05:19:30 pm »
Now that I am not travel weary, and have had time to think on the issue. Even if you do extract before freezing it will not solve your space issues, so kindly disregard anything I had said earlier.  :-\
Keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
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Offline rober

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2020, 06:53:06 am »
because i prefer extracting all frames at once i was freezing frames until i got all my supers pulled to protect them from beetles & moths. now that i have this many hives i'll have to extract them as they come in as freezing this many frames is not practical. i will still freeze them before storing them.

Offline rober

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #9 on: August 19, 2020, 08:35:03 am »
as a follow up...i loaded the freezer with a batch of frames & needed to go into the freezer about 3 hours later. i found beetle larva that had left the comb & were already dead. i'll still freeze frames for 48 hours but found this interesting. this is a small 7.5 cu. ft freezer. when i fully load it with frames it takes awhile to return to freezing temperatures. i'm only going to freeze the final load for 24 hours. i'll keep those supers segregated from the rest & monitor them closely for a couple weeks. since this freezer can only handle 5.5 supers of frames at a time 24 hours vs 48 would help a lot. next year i might invest in a bigger freezer. if it wasn't for the dang beetles freezing would not be necessary. moth crystals & BT would be sufficient.

Offline iddee

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #10 on: August 19, 2020, 08:42:37 am »
It was larva you saw dead, not eggs. I have put bee larva and eggs in a trapout and we had frost that night. The larva died, but the eggs were made into viable queen cells when hatched, and queens were made.

Larva die easier than eggs.
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Offline rober

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Re: freezing frames
« Reply #11 on: August 19, 2020, 11:22:14 am »
thanks for that iddee.