# Reusing frames



## angryhippie (Mar 11, 2010)

How does everyone handle cycling out frames. It's my understanding that you should be constantly cycling out old frames & wax in the brood chamber. Do you just pitch the hold frames or do you go through the effort of cutting the wax out and trying to fit a new piece of foundation in them?


----------



## kaizen (Mar 20, 2015)

unless you have an excess of drawn frames I wouldn't. after three years i'm putting them in the wax melter. I use plastic foundation so really just taking off black brood comb. only ones I have done it to were nucs I bought last year that looked very black.


----------



## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I do not cycle out good sound comb as I am in business to produce honey and raise bees. Both activities require lots of drawn comb and I never have enough. When frames are broken or brood combs require culled because of too much drone comb, steaming the frames to melt off the defective wax leaves a good clean frame to be refilled with foundation.


----------



## Groundhwg (Jan 28, 2016)

V.G.
Would you please share more about your process of steaming and cleaning your frames?
Thanks.


----------



## hex0rz (Jan 14, 2014)

Groundhwg said:


> V.G.
> Would you please share more about your process of steaming and cleaning your frames?
> Thanks.


Try this one.:

https://youtu.be/Wzkxq7qGqxQ

Many YouTube videos about the subject.


----------



## tech.35058 (Jul 29, 2013)

I do not rotate out combs/wax, altho I understand the concept and think its probably a good idea.
I do not disparage those who do it, or those who do not.
Damaged comb, tattered beyond returning to the hive, moth damaged or just yukky goes through a wax melt. This summer I used a rigged up solar melter which gave me clean wax without baby sitting a double boiler. The steam process I have read about also sounds viable, now that summer is over here.


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

One step past the good suggestions of VanceG is to carefully boil the almost clean wood frames in a lye solution.

Crazy Roland


----------



## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I have boiled a lot of old frames in lye, never again. I have melted a lot of combs in a solar melter. I now steam clean them and hot pressure wash them. And my conclusion? $ for $ you are ahead chucking them and making new ones. 
Lye boiling them really loosens them up, the even worse is on those made by poorly by others. Steaming them leaves enough residue that I still I have to hot pressure wash them. Unless you place no monetary value on our time, all that cleaning costs you more than new frame. 
But I clean them anyways????Why??? to reclaim the wax which pays back some of the cleaning expense. To help a sustainable world. Reuse recycle. I also use some 11 1/4" frame which are hard to replace with new. 
Cleaning takes longer than stapling. Fixing the wires takes almost as long as new wires. But the ones I made originally with glue and proper stapling come through the process well. So there is some "feel good" value in re-using them.


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Actually Ollie, if you have a 200 gallon SS tank, you can stack quite a few frames in it, weight them down, and boil out many frames with little labor. 

Before terramycin and sulfa, my grandfather did a good business in cleaning boxes and frames.

Crazy Roland


----------



## angryhippie (Mar 11, 2010)

The steaming idea is pretty cool. Based on the feedback it sounds like no one on here actually cycles out the frames regularly so I may not worry about them unless they're really bad. I'm thinking of ordering plastic foundation this winter, but I had never had good luck with plastic in the past. Cross wiring and embedding just takes too long though.


----------



## becsbeehive (Oct 29, 2016)

There are some great videos on cleaning and steaming on youtube, you should check them out. I have been doing this as well.


----------



## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

I do cycle out some frames with wax moth damage and those that got wired together during a cutout.

That which still works as bait goes in to swarm traps, that which is too "aesthetically challenged" gets to visit the solar melter first, and the double boiler second.

Don't put plastic foundation into the solar melter - it will warp. Scrape it clean, then paint it with molten wax and use it again.

Don't bother picking out wax moth larvae - the wax melter handles them just fine! :v:


----------



## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

My bees are healthy on the black comb frames. They don't care as long as there is
a place for the queen to lay and the bees to take care of their broods.
The 5 years old black comb still in good condition I will not throw them away or 
melt them out. Instead put them to collect the pollen during the
Spring and Autumn flow. By then the cell size is small enough to turn them into
the small cells. Now I'm thinking to use the small cells old comb to make the silicone
foundation mold for making SC wax foundation. I just cannot figure out how to make the bottom cells 
curve enough at the right angle once the silicon is pour on. I just want a perfect bottom cell if possible. It costs $150 dollars to
buy a set of the finished SC silicone mold online. Any ideas for me to make this mold?


p.S. Use a 5 gal. bucket to immerse the frames in it for 5 days mixed with water and H2O2 will make the
cells clean again. The bees will clean out the cell cocoons once the frame is put back into the hive. H202 is safe! And has an
exothermic reaction with the frames. Wonder what bee diseases can be clean up with H202 oxidizing on the cells.


Black comb potential to make silicone foundation mold:


----------



## beez72 (Feb 10, 2016)

How much H202 do you add to a 5 gal bucket.


----------



## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

You can add 50/50 ratio or 75% H2O2. I have even tried full
strength in a foam cooler. Because it is an exothermic reaction the comb is safe.
Clean and disinfect. Wonder if certain bee diseases can be clean out too?


----------

