# Wet Supers



## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

I am curious to know what larger producers do with wet supers. Do you:

Store them wet?

Put the back on the hives?

Leave them out to be robbed?

Thanks,


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## Heintz88 (Feb 26, 2012)

Freeze- store in sealed trailers


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Thanks. Anyone else?


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

We store them in our warehouse after they have been extracted. The bees will quickly clean up any "wetness" that remains the next time they go on, whether that be this year or next year.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Heintz88 said:


> Freeze- store in sealed trailers


Really? How many supers are you freezing, in what, and how many sealed trailers do you have? Is that how Gary does it, in FL?

Mine are stacked on pallets, tarped, and set as much in the shade as possible allowing the bees to clean them of what honey they can find.


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## mnbeekeeper (Jun 30, 2010)

I keep mine in the back separate part of my insulated shop. I put a small 5000 btu air conditioner in the wall to control humid air and to keep it nice and cool. if i extract in august and don't put boxes back on and they sit in the warm air i get lots of hive beetle crawling from the empty stacks of supers. I have not had any since I started using the small ac. I even keep it on energy saver mode and it keeps it nice and cool. also hang a fan in front of it to push air away faster. this room is 40x40 and it stays in the low 60s when its 90 and humid out. im happy with it. also no moth problems either.


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## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

I am looking into what to do with my load of wet supers this year as well, I know there is some pollen in the honey frames and it seems to get wax moth because of it, so I was going to put hardware cloth over the tops and bottoms and put them in a ventilated building, is this a good or bad idea ? Not heated either


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## jean-marc (Jan 13, 2005)

Well vented is good. Not heated is very good. The cold can freeze wax moth at all stages of development.

Jean-Marc


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

We store them in a sealed shed, a sea can and dry van trailers. They all are stored wet. They all get frozen out during our nice cold winter. I like to take a trailer or two away from the facility to help manage fire risk. Its lots of work, but to replace those boxes, as boxes inthe same conditon as mine are in, are worth a fortune.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Ben Little said:


> I was going to put hardware cloth over the tops and bottoms and put them in a ventilated building, is this a good or bad idea ? Not heated either


This was similar to my plan. I don't don't have the indoor storage space, so I was going to store them outside with a queen excluder over the top and bottom of each stack to keep the mice out and a telescoping cover on the top. I was trying to decide whether I should drop them near one of the yards to have them cleaned up first. Its a lot of extra handling and I would rather not do it if it isn't necessary.


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## dsegrest (May 15, 2014)

I only have 4 hives. I stack my boxes, with frames outside using 4 X 4's on the ground and 2"stock to make spacers between the boxes. I stack them head high with telescoping covers on each stack. No problems w/mice or wax moths. When I first stack them the bees have a block party, but it only lasts about 1 day.


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## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

I just store mine in the beeyards wet, stack them up with an outer cover on top, and a window screened inner cover on the bottom, put the stacks on plywood, keep the inner cover up on a 3/8" shim at each corner so water can drain away. I just make sure that there are no small cracks between the boxes that wax moths can get into, and if there are tape them shut. Have virtually no problem from the moths until the supers are used again next year.


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

Do you find that when you store the supers wet, the bees move into them quicker next season?


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Bees instantly move into wet supers. The big IF is the honey flow at the time. If there is a honeyflow the bees start rebuilding and storing. If the bees need the honey to live on, they move it down to an expanding brood nest. Either is a win in my books.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Steveng asked:

Do you find that when you store the supers wet, the bees move into them quicker next season? 

The "Bull of the Woods" always claimed it helped them come up through the excluder.

Crazy Roland


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

So then it seems the smart thing is to store them wet, protect from wax moth, and return next spring wet to the colonies to encourage the bees to get to work! :lpf:
Regards,
Steven


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