Cleanse it with Fire!

After the surprising abundance of Commercial Brood Boxes and frames at this years Beverley Beekeepers' Auction I had a little cleaning work to do. Used beekeeping equipment can be a vector for nasty diseases and viruses so properly sterilising second hand kit before introducing it to the bees is a must.

Toby surveying the work ahead.
He didn't help.

Normally hive boxes are sterilised by scorching with fire. Gamma irradiation works pretty well too but isn't hugely popular in the UK at the moment. The Hulk was created when Dr Bruce Banner came into contact with Gamma rays which tells us that Stan Lee knows bugger all about Gamma radiation. The cost of acquiring and storing your own radioactive isotopes and equipment pretty much rule that out for most beekeepers over here so I decided to go with fire.

So far I've always used a small butane torch, the kind that uses small metal cylinder you buy from DIY shops. Looking at the job ahead I was pretty sure I'd be blazing through cylinder after cylinder trying to scorch all those boxes so it was time to upgrade. I popped to Toolstation and picked up a gas hose, regulator and torch kit -basically a Roofers Torch but a few quid cheaper for buying it as separate items. With torch ready I then needed a tank of propane. You can get them from garages and they offer much better value for money than buying loads of little disposable canisters. The downside is you need to pay about £40 deposit on your first bottle. I didn't really want to do that. It turns out that because of the deposit system the gas supplier remains the owner of the actual gas bottle and they exchange it whenever you get a refill. This means that scrap merchants won't accept them and you cant take them to the tip, unfortunately nobody ever seems to get a full refund on their last gas bottle so it's a canny move by the suppliers. This means unwanted gas bottles tend to get fly tipped a lot. I had a drive around till I found a nice red 13KG Calor Gas bottle sat doing nothing popped it in the car and took it to a local garage. There I exchanged it for a 6KG bottle of propane saving myself the deposit -and presumably returning a lost bottle to circulation, Everyone's a winner -well me anyway :)

Flame on Johnny

The bigger the bottle the cheaper the gas, I opted for a 6KG bottle rather than 13KG simply because I need to be able to lug it about the patio and at some point it's likely I'll want to take it to the apiary. Something I hadn't realised was that the nozzlethingbit (it probably has a better name, but I don't know it) on the gas bottles are made with a reverse thread so when I tried to attach the regulator turning it clockwise it didn't go in at all. After a light bulb moment I spotted the problem and managed to assemble the thing. With it working I blazed through all eight Commercial Brood Boxes with ease. LPG gives a hotter flame than the butane mix in the small cylinders and with my new torch I was using a bigger flame too. It did take a little getting used to working round the hose though and at one point I singles off a 2" wide strip of hair from my right forearm. Oops. No major damage though.

Sterilised woodwork

With the boxes now sterilised it was time to turn my attention to the frames. I decided to boil them in a Soda Crystal solution using one of my Burco Boilers. They didn't fit in completely so it meant boiling them in the solution then turning them over to do the other end.

Hot Tub Time Machine

I stopped them floating up I used the Burco lid as a weight. It took ages to get through all the frames and a few I had left still to do.It occurred to me that the metal boiler was probably losing a lot of heat out of the sides as the evening wore on and temperature dropped so I grabbed a few brood boxes and put them over it.

Sheltering the Burco in a few Brood Boxes to keep the heat in/

After boiling each frame was given a quick scrub with a nylon brush in a plastic tub of water and stacked up to air dry. Once thoroughly dried the frames were put into the brood boxes for storage.

Stack of cleaned frames left out to dry

Cleaning under the hives

In nature bees nest in a hole high up in a tree, dead bees on the ground around the tree wouldn't really affect the colony and the hive floor would have it's own little population of woodlice and so on eating whatever fell on it. However as most beekeepers aren't twenty feet tall and generally keep their hives at a height they can work them and use open mesh floors dead bees and detritus can accumulate on the ground around and under hives. If your hives are above bare ground or grass you might not really notice this as nature does it's thing but mine are sat above concrete pavers so I get to see the mess.

Hive detritus on the pavers

I've noticed wasps picking at the dead bees before and slugs feed off the general mess too. More recently I've been seeing bumblebees picking through the litter too. That poses a risk of disease or parasites spreading between the honey bees and the wild bumble bee colonies so it's not something to be ignored. It was time to clean up under there.

A party of Bumble Bees picking through litter below a hive

I went to sweep up just after 8pm, it was still fairly warm and whilst it was still light the bees were all in the hives or bedded down. Taking a sweeping brush and standing behind the hives I began sweeping the dead bees and miscellaneous hive crap towards me, slugs and all.

Slugs and woodlice were enjoying the banquet

It didn't take long before a couple of bees buzzed round to see what was going on. I noticed them but carried on sweeping. They didn't like that. I got a sting in the arm from one and decided to walk away to let them settle. A few minutes later I returned and resumed sweeping at the other end of the line of hives. A few bees came out and wasted no time planting two stings in my head. Raking the stings off with my finger nails (didn't have a cash card on me at the time..)  I went back to the car and got a jacket with a veil and some latex gloves. All covered up I went back. The bees had retired again but it wasn't long before angry guards started buzzing me as I worked and they planted a couple of stings in my clothing but rather then stretch it I opted to work quickly and got the job finished

I don't keep angry bees, whilst some claim they give better honey yields I don't think it's worth the effort or the risk. Mine are usually rather placid, placidf enough that I keep a few tools and things near the hives which I often retrieve with no more protective gear than jeans and a tshirt. So what made the bees angry today? I think it must have been the smell of the decomposing bees as I was disturbing them with my brush. Thinking back when I've cleaned under hives before I've used a lot of water, soda crystals and a sponge instead of just a brush. The liquid probably reduces the odours being released. I'll remember that for next time.

I buried the dead bees in a composter, pretty sure the vegetation breaking down on top will help mask any odours and the ant colony already living in it will speed up their decomposition. Another evening I'll pop back with some soda crystal solution and give those pavers a quick scrub to help shift any greasy residue amd remaining odours. Probably needs doing once or twice a season really.