# What to do with frames after extraction



## broncorm (Mar 9, 2018)

Leave them out in the yard in an uncovered box and the bee will come and clean them out. Do you want to use them for brood this year or save them for next spring?


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## meganmarie (Aug 26, 2016)

I'd use them this year. If I don't need to use them for brood, is it ok to just put them back on as a super and let them fill them up or is the mixture of old honey and new nectar not a good idea?


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## fatshark (Jun 17, 2009)

The only issue with the old/new honey might be wildly different glucose/sucrose levels leading to granulation of the new honey that would not have normally granulated so fast. Some people use different honey supers for oil seed rape (canola) which granulates fast, to avoid 'contaminating' the summer honey which often granulates much more slowly.

I don't bother ... 

Leaving them out to be cleaned is not recommended as it's a good way to spread disease.


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## Bee Havin (Mar 1, 2017)

If they need the room for brood, just place them directly above the brood chamber and they will clean them and the queen will lay in the available space. It sounds like they may need room for honey, so I would place it under the inner cover, which will keep the brood chamber free laying.


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## Hillbillybees (Mar 3, 2016)

They just keep filling them up, dang it. Guess you better let them or they will find a tree to fill up.


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## JimD (Feb 3, 2018)

I had the same thing happen. I had been feeding a new hive and they jumped all over the med super and I extracted close to 2 gallons and was going to fee it back but the honey tasted pretty good. People that work for me took it off my hands.

I had the same problem as the bees cleaned the super up, rebuilt the wax and have filled the supper back up with 8 of 9 frames pretty much full on honey but almost none of the comb is capped. 

Trying to fig out the water content to see if that is why the honey is not capped yet or split this with my new split in the other med supper and see if both hives will start to pull the new comb and cap the existing honey.


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## gatsby174 (Jun 2, 2014)

This year I've learned that getting the honey frames capped is a function of having a huge population of the correct aged bees. Only bees between 12 and 17 days old really produce large quantities of wax. 

If you have a lot of field workers and not enough in the lower age group (which is usually the result of swarming) they still pack and dehydrate the honey, but not really cap it. You have to have a booming hive on a flow to really pack it in and cap it quickly.


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