Honey questions

[vvand111]

I went through all of my hives today.  I have several post that I will do later about that experience.

What my questions for the pros are is about Honey. Last year I was fortunate enough to harvest some 6 frames deep from my hives.  I put them in freezer to eliminate wax moth and SHB infestation. I kept these in freezer thinking I might need to feed back to the bees in spring.

That was not the case. I found myself pulling more frames of honey in the spring to make room in the brood boxes.  I put them in freezer as well but it is getting out of hand.   I have honey in all my hives and will probably pull another 20 frames of medium and deep honey in the next 2 weeks.

I have purchased a 20 frame extractor from Larson.  I plan on setting the honey house up in the next 10 days to extract for the first time.
Some of these frames have been in the freezer or refrigerator since they have been pulled from the hive.

Have I messed up any of this honey by leaving in freezer?? 
How should I properly store the frames full of honey after removing from Freezer/ refrigerator before I extract ??
I know they need to thaw but I really do not want critters in them during that time frame.

Any thoughts or suggestions are really appreciated here. This is new territory for me as is most of the rest of this.

Loving it all even the tough spots,

Vandy

[Green bee]

 

[Perry]

Once you remove them from the freezer you will have to bring them up to temp, a couple of days around 30 C should do it. The time in the freezer shouldn't have hurt them at all.

[vvand111]

Thank Perry.  Do I need to bag them or otherwise protect them in a recommended way??

[Perry]

Just keep them  in a  safe spot, no access by wax moth or SHB. I wouldn't bother warming them until you're ready to extract.

[vvand111]

So if I put the frames in a rubber sealed container it would be sufficient?

I was looking at a container at restaurant depot the other day that is made to rinse and clean salad. It is like a big collider but you can seal the top.  I think it would be perfect. It probably would have room for 20 or so frames.

I will go back and look again and let you know what I think.

[riverbee]

"Some of these frames have been in the freezer or refrigerator since they have been pulled from the hive.
Have I messed up any of this honey by leaving in freezer??
How should I properly store the frames full of honey after removing from Freezer/ refrigerator before I extract ??
I know they need to thaw but I really do not want critters in them during that time frame."

vandy, how did you store the frames in the freezer? just put them in? and no you did not 'mess' the honey up by leaving in the freezer, i store packaged comb honey in the freezer, in the containers i package them in and enclosed in zip locs, and have also stored deep/medium frames in garbage bags.

storing frames; wrap them in garbage bags. let them come to room temp in the garbage bag, remove. the moisture should gather on the bag rather than the face of the comb. if you have moisture on the face of the comb, just lay paper towel down to absorb the moisture off the capped frames.

you can place your frames in a tightly sealed tub, nothing special........just remember about the moisture, press off with paper towel if need be. when you go to extract these frames............HEAT in the room, when you uncap and place in your extractor, otherwise you WILL be using a lot of non disney language........

[rober]

the thing to watch for when bagging is mold. i'd stack the boxes crosswise & run a fan on them until the condensation dries. how long will it be before you extract?

[tedh]

We have stored honey frames in the freezer but have limited room to do so.  The "over flow" we left in appropriate sized boxes, deeps or mediums, sprayed with BT, then stacked with a tele cover on top and an upside down tele cover on the bottom.  Not sure that's the best way but what's a guy to do?  Gotta play the hand with the cards you're dealt.  Ted

[vvand111]

I would expect about 2 weeks rober

[Captain776]

If you place frozen frames of honey or n a sealed container, you are going to get a lot of moisture from condensation.
I think stacking them one frame the long way, then 2 frames sideways on that and stack them up like cordwood you were trying to get Air to and run a fan n them, there will still be condensation due to the temperature difference of ambient air and the temp of the frozen honey but the fan will also dry the moisture.

[tedh]

Welcome aboard Captain!  Glad you're here!  Ted