You may have heard that I lost 6 hives during the heavy rains in April. The water rose nearly 3.5 feet in the lake and the hive stands and hives floated off, tipped over and sailed away. I was able to rescue the woodenware but only a marked green queen and a small population. Thanks to Josh I have a second booming hive. But I was advised by many that the sixty frames of plasticell that were filled with larvae, brood (capped and open) and stores were ruined and “just throw them on an ant hill.” Ants are carnivores and will clean up the cells. I did, they did but they left a mess. I don’t know what I was thinking: high-end room service after a rock concert? I figured I’d ask several questions and get lots of options. (Remember you have to be a website member and logged in to the site to leave a message.)
Here goes:
1. Is it worth saving any of these (see photos)? If so, how? Or, should I just ditch and start over?
2. Is it worth saving only the woodenware and simply put in new plasticell and hope for the best after waxing the new plasticell?
3. Is there a way to clean these as they are and then (as I’ve heard) just put them back into a strong hive and they will clean them up?
4. What’s a beekeeper to do? I have 60+ frames like this.
Time is money. If frames are usable pop out old foundation and replace with double or triple wax foundation ( Pierco.com). This time of year I would use triple wax to encourage building it out. For me paying extra for triple wax is money well spent. Also feed the heck out of them to encourage young bees and wax production or you will get a lot of wonky comb. Unless hive is just booming they wont spend a lot of resources on repairing damaged foundation.