Worldwide Beekeeping

Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: vvand111 on September 08, 2020, 10:48:54 pm

Title: wax months
Post by: vvand111 on September 08, 2020, 10:48:54 pm

hey guys   need advice

I pulled about 80lbs of beautiful honey frames from a super about a month ago .  I took those  frames and put them in what I thought was a sealed container.  I opened up that container to put several more super frames in and the honey is still there but frames covered in wax moth larva. HONEY STILL THER AND STILL LOOKS good.  Not sure what to do with that honey  I know this was stupid.  I should have froze first but I made another rookie mistake.   

any way to save this honey??

Title: Re: wax months
Post by: iddee on September 09, 2020, 05:01:17 am

I would still freeze it for a few days and then try cleaning it up. Most all frames of honey have moth eggs. Sealing the eggs in a bag doesn't do the job.

Title: Re: wax months
Post by: Bakersdozen on September 09, 2020, 08:54:42 am

Your not the first rookie to make this mistake.  Sealing frames in bags creates an incubator.  I would freeze it for a couple of days, like iddee suggests. This winter you could feed it back to the bees.   Wax moths usually are attracted to brood frames where they like the protein.  This could have been small hive beetle larvae.  Either way, I would be inclined to feed it back to the bees. 

Title: Re: wax months
Post by: vvand111 on September 09, 2020, 09:14:21 am

No obvious signs of the larva  I was inspecting the frames and saw a lot of larva. In the freezer right now.

Is this honey worth extracting or just simply give back to bees only???.

The wax and honey all looks pretty good.

Title: Re: wax months
Post by: iddee on September 09, 2020, 09:41:22 am

Wax moths leave webbing. SHB leave slime. If it is only webbing, and no slime, I would try to clean it up. Then decide if I wanted to eat it or not. I would not package it to sell.

Title: Re: wax months
Post by: vvand111 on September 09, 2020, 10:10:31 am

Thank you both for the replies.

No sign of webbing at all. Just little white larva.

Title: Re: wax months
Post by: iddee on September 09, 2020, 12:58:16 pm

That is SHB. After freezing, if no slime and no bad smell, I would use the honey.

Title: Re: wax months
Post by: vvand111 on September 09, 2020, 03:27:45 pm

Thank you. I have been doing this for 5 years, should have better than to make this mistake.  Offer told me 4 years ago. I just had a brain f..t and got in a hurry. So much for cutting out a important step.

Title: Re: wax months
Post by: vvand111 on September 09, 2020, 08:50:29 pm

That was supposed to be Iddee not offer

Title: Re: wax months
Post by: vvand111 on September 11, 2020, 09:59:22 pm

all has turned out. It was shb  I froze and put back on hive for awhile  Bees already cleaning and making things tidy.

This honey is saved.  Thanks for the input and the great advice.  I LISTEN