what to do with empty hives?

[Papakeith]

So I've got at least 5 colonies that didn't make it.  This leaves me with 10 10 frame deeps fully drawn, many with honey/pollen stores.

Up to now, the temps have been close to freezing or below.  So all I did was block up the entrances and left the screen bottom boards out.  There is also venting on the top.  Now that we seem to be emerging from a deep freeze for more than a few days I'm curious if I should be doing anything to keep the comb and stores from getting messed up until I get some new girls to take up residence?

[Dunkel]

On the pulled comb with no honey, you can just break them apart and store where light can get to them and in a dry area.  The honey the same way but where the bees can't get to them. A freezer being the best.

[tbonekel]

Hey, that might be a good diy project...an outdoor comb box. It would be hard I imagine. You would have to build it with opaque material to let light in but with some bee proof ventilation. You would have to be careful not to turn it into a solar wax melter though. An then you would have to keep other critters away. Hmmm. I better stop saying anything or it might stop sounding like such a good idea. 

[LazyBkpr]

Typically I put empty frames in supers, stack the supers and put the paramoth crystals on them and close them up. The frames with honey I put in the freezer..
   The moth crystals require you to air the supers/frames out for a couple of days before using them again.

   I have NOT tried Xentari BT  yet, but if it works as everyone says...   Spray the empty frames with it, stack the supers and cover until your ready to put them back to use. I'd still put the honey frames in the freezer in either situation..  You can always use those to feed later, or put them in with the new package when you hive them.

[litefoot]

Definitely want to do something with the remaining honey before it warms too much. Your surviving colonies will "transfer" it to safekeeping if you know what I mean. Your post reminded me of a thought I had last year (unfortunately) after I had winterized the bees. I wish I had marked the full frames of capped honey in the deeps before I started Fall feeding. That way in the Spring, if I had leftover stores or if a colony didn't make it,  I would be able to differentiate the difference between frames of capped honey and frames of capped syrup.

[Perry]

I have never been too fussy with storing deep frames of honey. I usually just make a stack of them in the backyard (where I can watch them), and all I do is just make sure they are bee tight. A screened bottom and a upside down bee escape or snelgrove board on top so there is plenty of ventilation. Clearly this wouldn't work in areas with SHB.

[riverbee]

button the hives up tight so nothing can get into them.  then on your upcoming warm day, clean the dead bees out and off the frames.

i don't freeze any frames. i have an outbuilding that used to be an old milk house. it stays relatively cool and dry through summer months. all of the equipment is moved to this building and stored, stacked on pallets, frames and all.  i utilize plywood cut to fit the boxes, so used as top and bottom covers, and sometimes in between supers.

[brooksbeefarm]

The reason Squirt and perry don't put frames in the freezer is because they live in one .I have 10 hives i'm going through today (dead outs) since Albert Einstein and i have the same birthday (different years of course) i will use the scientific part of my brain to diagnose what happend to them. I will then clean them and spray them with BT let them dry and air out, then stack them in the shed with lids so mice won't bother them. Jack

[Papakeith]

I'm not too far south of Perry, so maybe I'll not have to worry too much until the end of May. 
Bees(for the most part) have already been cleaned out.  There are still a few head first into the comb, but the bulk of them have been removed.

[minz]

Last week I pulled mine apart and put the honey frames in the freezer.  I got a real sugar ant problem and find that even at about 35 or 40 degrees they are moving up into the hive for the sugar.  I figure it would be an ant magnet in a hurry. 
I should do something with my boxes.  I have dead outs stacked in piles in a couple of spots.  I wanted to build more gear but how do I justify it with this mess? We have been hitting 50 for most days of the last week and 60 in the forecast, maybe winter is over?

[blueblood]

I feel your pain on that one Minz.  I just brought in all my dead outs and stacked them in my shop.  The dead out equipment plus all the dry supers have squeezed me out of my workshop.  I am bursting at the seems with woodenware!