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Over the years I have developed a specific way to store empty supers, but your method may differ. A lot depends on how many supers you need to store and the amount of storage space you have. Another issue is pests. Mice and wax moths can be especially hard on stored equipment.
I keep empty bee boxes—with or without drawn comb—in stacks in an enclosed shed. I crisscross the boxes so that each box is at a 90-degree angle to the one below it. This allows the free flow of light and air throughout the stack.
Light repels wax moths, not mice
Wax moths do not like light, so a stack with lots of light inside is a good thing. I should mention that my shed (which is really my garden shed) has both windows and skylights. I know this seems like prime real estate to waste on bee boxes, but I don’t use the space much in the winter anyway.
However, it is not a perfect system. Mice don’t seem to mind the light and one year I had mice make nests right in the drawn combs. They made creative use of chicken feathers, woodchips, peat moss, and straw they found in the area. Once they were comfy, the mice munched on the combs that contained honey and pollen.
So now I stack the boxes and place mouse traps on all four sides of each column and I add a few extra inside the stack on the floor (you can buy them in bulk). It’s worked so far.
Mold likes damp frames
The “open stacking” method also inhibits mold growth. One year I stored a few supers that had honey and pollen in them and, in order to keep mice away, I closed up the stack. By spring, the combs smelled moldy and disgusting.
Since that time, whenever I have frames with honey or pollen, I give them to an overwintering colony. The bees manage to discourage mice, moths, and mold better than I can, so I let them.
Use closed stacks if you are treating for wax moths
Beekeepers who must treat their empties for wax moths often stack the supers in line with each other so no light and air can enter. Inside these closed-off stacks, they place insecticide to kill the wax moths.
Of course, insecticide-treated frames and boxes must be totally and completely aired out in the spring before they can safely be used on bee hives. It’s another step you need to do before a nectar flow and one you must not forget.
Beware of plastic containers
I often hear stories from people who have decided to store empty supers or frames inside tight-fitting plastic boxes or plastic wrap. While this may work in some cases, beekeepers are often horrified to find everything within the container embedded in a thick mold by spring.
This occurs because plastic does not breathe. If any dampness remains inside a non-ventilated plastic wrap or container, it can easily grow large quantities of mold. The moisture might be in the wood itself, or it might be from traces of honey or other hive debris.
If you decided to store supers or frames in tight-fitting plastic boxes, double-check that everything is completely dry. In addition, peek inside after a few weeks just to make sure no mold has begun to grow.
Your empty supers are unique
So again, it depends on your situation. I don’t use pesticides and I’ve managed to keep wax moths at bay by always freezing my honeycombs after harvest and by stacking the empties as I’ve described.
I’ve seen people just stack their supers outside, but around here rain is a problem as well as lots of wildlife—including mammals, birds, and all types of invertebrates (bugs and slugs)—so I keep them inside.
As with anything else in beekeeping, you may have to try a couple of different methods to find out what works in your area. It’s all part of learning the ropes.
Rusty Burlew
Honey Bee Suite
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Hi, I have been keeping bees for only two years and I lost my bees this winter. I also was unable to replace them as of yet and decided to just wait until next year. I was able to harvest honey out of a hive body (deep) which I did only two weeks ago. I want to know how to safely store them avoiding wax moths and hive beetle infestations. I do not have an enclosed shed with light. Right now they are sitting , stacked openly, in my garage where currently it is pretty cool. We live in Pennsylvania. There are no pests in there and would like to keep it that way until next April when new bees arrive. I thought about open stacking, bagging and keeping off the ground and deep in my garage. What would you recommend ?
Keri,
If they’ve been empty of bees for more than a few weeks, they probably have no eggs or larvae right now. The trick is to keep them away from adult moths and beetles. Moths are trickier because they can fly into your garage, but you also don’t want to wrap them too tightly or they may mold. If your garage is pretty tight, you are probably fine to just openly stack. Do check on them occasionally. If you develop a problem, you want to catch it early.
Thank you for your reply. I have a roll of nylon door screening. Would screening the top and bottom be helpful do you think? Or would it encourage mold?
Keri,
I think screening would work, but still check on them after a couple weeks to be sure they’re dry.
Hi there. I need to save and keep my empty combs and I don’t know how to do it. They need a special treatment? Thanks for your help! 🙂
Best Regards
Joaquin
Joaquin,
If the combs had brood in them, they may attract wax moths in storage. As I said in the post, I use this storage method for boxes either with or without comb. You can put something like Paramoth in the stack if wax moths are a problem, but they will have to be completely aired out before you use them again. If they don’t have wax moths so far, just keeping them away from moths should be enough.
Thanks Rusty!
Sept. 14, 2015
I removed three frames with drawn comb no eggs, no larvae, but a bit of nectar in some combs. I want to store these for use in the spring. Since there are few to store should I put them in the freezer? (Mice are a bit of a problem.) thanks
Chritine,
You can store them in your freezer if you have room. I would just wrap them in plastic, freeze them overnight, and then store the plastic-wrapped frames somewhere the mice couldn’t get them.
So is it safe to say – that if you live in a northern climate, that if you leave your supers in the shed and it gets down to -25 or so that it would be a good treatment for Wax Moth?
Richard,
That depends. If the supers already have eggs, you need to freeze them immediately, otherwise the eggs will hatch and the moths do their damage. But certainly as long as it is freezing in your shed, wax moths will not be a problem.
Hello Rusty,
I was thinking since I live in Southern California. After extracting the honey, I will just put them back on the colony. I use a queen excluder, so I won’t have any brood in that super when it is filled again with honey. Is this a good way to keep my supers free of moths and mice? I have no storage, and looking for a good practical solution.
Thanks,
Karine
Karine,
It depends. If your colonies are large and strong and policing the supers in winter, you might be okay. If the bees are clustering down in the brood boxes, moths and beetles could move in. Too much space in a winter hive can often be a problem.
Thank you all for your suggestions. Could I freeze my empty supers to prevent moths and various disease from affecting the empty combs over the winter? And possibly thaw them out in the spring by placing them in the sun, criss-cross of course?
I too do not like to use pesticides.
Thank you.
Valeria,
Freezing will kill wax moths and small hive beetles, but it won’t kill diseases caused by viruses and bacteria. Supers by themselves are not attractive to most parasites unless they contain some kind of food source. Most boxes stacked up away from insects are just fine for the winter without ever being frozen.
Rusty,
I have some frames from my supers that have some brood on them. I’ve heard that I have to get rid of the foundation. Is that necessary?
Thank you!
Dawn
Dawn,
I’m not sure I understand your question. Do you mean dead brood? And is the brood in your honey supers or in your brood boxes? If the brood is in your brood boxes, it doesn’t matter. The bees will get rid of it and clean up the frames.
If the brood is in your supers where you want honey stored, the bees will still clean it up. But if you want clean comb, as for comb honey, you might want to replace the foundation.
Rusty,
The dead brood is in my supers. I went to a beekeeping meeting yesterday and there was a brief discussion on leftover brood (I lost my entire hive to mites) and they seemed to think that American or European foulbrood could occur if I put those frames with brood back in the hive. Color me confused, this is my second year and the education keeps coming!
Dawn
Dawn,
If you lost your hive to mites and not to foulbrood, you have no reason to worry. I would certainly not remove the foundation because of some dead brood. I would just let the bees clean it up. To prevent buildup of disease spores, it is a good idea to remove used brood combs after about four or five years of use.
Rusty,
I am holding back a couple of frames containing capped ( and uncapped but finished ) honey in order to drop in a hive next spring should stores become severely depleted. Reading your entry and responses to your questions helps, but I am hoping you can weigh in about the choice I have. It’s either storage downstairs in my wood heated basement ( 70+ degrees & low low humidity) or in the unheated attic stacked in front of the window with mice traps set up a small you described. Oh, only a couple of supers are involved.
Gerry,
I think either would work, although I prefer low humidity. I would go for the basement.
I have 10 hives and after extracting honey I place the supers out for the bees to clean them up. I then had plans to stack them with Para-Moth on top of the supers then wrap the stack with stretch wrap. I’m concerned with mold. Should I treat with Para-Moth for a few days / weeks, air them out then screen the top and bottom of the stack so air can circulate for the rest of the winter. I’m in central Texas. I understand that Moth Crystals wont kill the moths that may get in the supers wile the bees are cleaning them up. Is that a worry?
Gene,
I suspect it’s dry enough in most parts of Texas that mold isn’t much of an issue, but any dampness in an enclosed space could cause a problem. Moths are not usually attracted to supers that never had brood in them, so if your honey supers only ever had honey in them, I don’t think moths are much of a worry. Wax moths are poorly named: what they are really after is bee cocoons.
I think your best alternative would be to ask local beekeepers who are familiar with both moth and mold problems in your area.
Thanks Rusty
Hi! Do you have a picture of how you stack your boxes in the shed? I also have a shed, however, I have not stacked them in a way that allows light in and I am starting to see larvae in the little bits of wax left on the frames.
No picture, but just turn each box a quarter-turn (90 degrees) from the one below it.
We are thinking about getting a couple of 20-foot shipping containers for storage for our hives and empty frames. Has anyone used these and have any advice? We live in Florida where it is pretty hot. We also have trouble with wax moths.
I have no real-world advice on the shipping containers since I’m in the Pacific NW, but you’d want to be sure they wouldn’t get so hot inside that the wax combs distort or melt.
As far as wax moths go; try spraying the frames you’re going to store with Certan or XenTari. They contain Bacillus thurengiensis ssp. aizawai spores and proteins that will kill wax moth larvae that hatch out on your frames in storage, and it won’t hurt your bees that use the frames later. Just mist them lightly on both sides. Other types of B.t. products sold for use in gardens won’t work because they don’t have the right strain of B.t. to kill wax moth larvae. Stack your boxes of frames on a ventilation screen and put one on top also. This will allow airflow through the stack. Stacking with the boxes aligned normally has kept the mice out of them for me.
What is one to do with foundation that has mouse droppings? Should I dispose?
Dee,
What I would do is brush the droppings away and then spray each side of the foundation with a solution of bleach and water. Put them in a protected area away from the sun where they can dry completely. Afterward, they will be fine to reuse.
Thanks Rusty! Your advise is greatly appreciated!! I will definitely give this a go.
Last fall, one of my two hives was attacked by a bear. The colony didn’t survive over the winter, and now I have many frames of capped honey and 2:1 sugar water (a small amount of which contains Honey-B-Healthy). I can’t extract them for human consumption because of the 2:1 and HBH.
Because of this, I don’t have many empty, built-out deep frames for the package I’m going to receive in two weeks. I intend on giving some of the frames to the existing hive to clean out, but I don’t think they’ll have the time to clean out all the frames. What can I do with the full frames?
David,
Just put them in the new hives in the outermost frame slots. They will give your new packages a great start.
Hi Rusty. Greetings from South Carolina.
Been reading this thread and wanted to pass on some information about what I do for frame storage. I went and bought a 5 cu ft freezer and built a small platform to fit into the bottom cause it has a ledge, the frames fit nicely sideways that way. So I’m freezing them for at least three days, just because, and then I have bought a number of the Sterilite 54 quart bins from the “W” store. I can put a 10 frame hive worth of frames into that, plus some mediums/shallows laying flat if needs be. The bins have four latches that snap the lid on tight, plus there is a foam rubber gasket around the edge for better sealing. Works pretty good. The only time I have had an issue was the result of my previous freezer not really dropping below far below 32 degrees. I now am down at 0 degrees. But any moths that hatched inside the bin, stayed there, so I’m pretty certain that from now on there shouldn’t be a problem. They stack quite nicely, and for a price around 13.00 dollars, it beats leaving the frames outside, plus they are clear, so any issues, I can see it happening. Thanks for the thread. It’s helped me. Regards, Don
So you didn’t have any mold problems?
Initially I did because I did not let the frames warm back up to room temperature before closing down and locking the lids. If I let them alone to warm up and dry (usually overnight by a fan), I can just put them into the Sterilite totes and then close up the lids. The tops are formed such that they will accept the bottom of another tote in order to stack up. No bugs, no mold, no mildew. Just take up some space.
Sorry, left this info out.
Sterilite 54 quart 1954 Blue Aquarium
That’s the identifying info on the tag.
Hi, first-time keeper here. We just moved into a place where bees were previously kept. We bought a hive that was coated in beeswax and placed it in the same area where the hives from the previous owner were. Immediately we started getting a lot of activity, we are so excited! The super and medium box that came with hive is being stored in the barn (no bottom, no top but with frames). I went out to the barn and there seems to be a swarm of bees taking hold in there. How do you store those supers and extra boxes without attracting bees to them? BTW, we plan on getting another 1 or 2 hives. We already have an order for a nook but it doesn’t arrive until May 8.
Kevin,
I assume you mean a nuc (nucleus hive) since I don’t know what a bee nook would be. In any case, the bees attracted to your stored equipment probably smell the beeswax. If you don’t want bees in there, cover it with something like a piece of plywood or cardboard.
Hello there. I’m suppose to be getting my packaged bees next week. Do you think it’s safe for me to set up my friends used bee box outside? It looks like it has some bees wax on it already. I’m not sure if it’ll attract moths or bugs but seems alright to put them out there to me but I actually don’t know a lot. Just starting out so I came across your website and thought to check in. Thanks!!
Queen,
A week won’t make any difference. The hive will be fine and moths won’t be a problem in that length of time. Actually, the moths are attracted by the scent of the brood more than the wax. If it’s just a small amount of broodless wax, it won’t be very attractive to a wax moth.
It’s kind of awesome you have this page set up. By that I mean really awesome. Thank you so much for answering questions like mine. 🙂
Thanks for that information!!! I will make sure I dry them and get them to room temperature before storing them. Very helpful! Thanks
First timer here and my question is “Can I use the honey if mice have been living in the hive?” I found 5 of the little buggers enjoying themselves at my expense.
Mark,
I’ve done it. I take the frames and rinse them well, then extract. Once extracted, the honey suppresses any microbial growth. Never had a problem with it. See Honey’s Magical Power.