How To Clean Poly Hives - Safe Cleaning, Sterilisation and Disinfection For Beekeepers

In this video, I'm going to show you a foolproof method for sterilizing and cleaning all types of poly hive. So previously, I used to wash my poly boxes in a barrel using a washing soda solution. Very effective at cleaning the poly hives, but doesn't actually sterilize them. That means that if you're moving frames in between boxes and you have a case of EFB and you have EFB bacteria in your poly hive, as soon as you put some new frames in it, the bees are going to take on that bacteria.

Start feeding the larva with it, and you're going to have a new fresh case of EFB in that poly hive.

Now, with wooden kit, it's far easier.

All you need to do is scrape the boxes down, scorch them all over, and that is a foolproof method for eradicating EFB bacteria.

In poly hives, you can't scorch them because they will melt. So you need a completely different solution.

That's what I'm going to show you in today's video.

So I got the advice and the details for this video from the MBU. There's a PDF pamphlet that they've put out.

I'll link it in the video to show you the step-by-step method.

But effectively what you need to do is get yourself a dipping tank that you can put boxes in and you need to fill it with water and then you need to put household bleach into it to build it up to a concentration of 3%.

Now when you start doing the maths, you realize that actually you're gonna need a huge amount of household bleach to get it up to that 3% chlorine content.

There is a far cheaper, easier, and better solution, and that is using a mixer called sodium hydrochlorite.

Now this stuff is horrible, really, really bad. Do not get this in your eyes, it will make you go blind. So take all adequate precautions. This is a sealed bottle, so don't worry about that, but you need to wear gloves, you need to wear arm protection, and most importantly, make sure you're wearing eye protection when you're mixing this into the water solution.

So the process I'm gonna show you today is really, really simple. With the sodium hydrochlorite solution, it comes at around a 13 to 14% concentration, which means that if you dilute it on a 5 to 1 ratio, it's going to take you just below the 3% barrier. So what I do is I mix it on a 4 to 1 ratio.

That gets me above the 3% barrier where I know it's safe, that it's definitely going to kill EFB.

Should say this at this point, this doesn't kill AFB. This is nothing to do with AFB.

If you've got AFB-infected equipment, you need to burn them, dig a hole, stick them in the hole, and cover them up. Does nothing whatsoever to AFB spores.

But once you've done that simple piece of maths, then the formula is really quite simple. Big container, 4 parts water, 1 part sodium hydrochlorite, lots of PPE, and then all you need to do is dip the boxes for 20 minutes.

And apparently that's good enough to sterilize the boxes completely and kill all AFB bacteria.

Now I've not done any tests to say whether that's effective against it, The NBU have done tests and they say that is effective against it, but I like to go a little bit further than that. So what I like to do is I'm adding in washing soda into the mix as well, and I'm using it as not only a sterilizing solution but a sterilizing and washing solution. I'm also going way over the 20-minute advised dipping time, and I'm actually using a 24-hour up to 48-hour advised dipping time. Reason I'm doing that is that the 20-minute is supposedly sufficient for sterilizing.

It's definitely not sufficient for the washing soda to break down the wax, break down the propolis, and to get them to the point where they're nice and clean and ready for me to jet wash them.

So enough of me talking. Let me show you a before. Let me show you an after. Let me show you my setup, and you will see for yourself just how amazingly clean and sterile these boxes come out. So this is about a three or four-year-old Suyenti poly box. You can see it's a little bit battered, but it is covered in wax and. Gunk and propolis and old bits of pollen. Really quite dirty. And what I want you to focus on there is in between the polyballs, you can see just how dirty and gunky that is.

You can guarantee if this box is contaminated with EFB, then there is going to be bacteria along all of these lines here and actually in within those polyballs as well.

So then in terms of the boxes that I'm using, you can use absolutely any container, but just make sure that it can fit all of your boxes For me, I've got National Deeps, I've got National Shallows, I've got 14x12s, and these boxes here from Charlie's— I'll link them out—

they are the absolute perfect size. And they've got a really nice feature, which is that they clip down like that.

Now, the clips don't hold once you get them submerged in the solution, and all I've done is just strapped a ratchet strap around them, and then that holds it completely into place. You can also see on this box here as well, I've got a couple of planks of really bleached wood. They're really important because they hold the box underneath the solution to make sure that all of the areas are in contact with that bleaching solution. So you can see I've built myself kind of like a trivet on top, so when I strap that lid on, it pushes it all down completely in. This is really important, and it means that you can do it in 24 hours as opposed to 48 hours. It means you don't have to switch the boxes and turn them over either. And I have to say, I think the results kind of speak for themselves. The exposure on this has gone crazy 'cause it's just like nearly pure white. But that's not the same box, but it was just as badly covered in wax and propolis and gunk and pollen. And you can see now, look at that, it is perfectly clean. And again, take a look in between those particles of poly, completely white, completely bleached, and completely sterile. So that box there is done. You can see just how incredibly clean it is. I'll get a couple of close-ups on that one again. What you wanna do at this point, if they're a little bit gunky still, you can pressure wash them off. What you definitely need to do is rinse them off though before you've used them again. So I've got a pressure washer set up over there. I'll go away, I'll just pressure wash all of the residue off, and then you leave them out to dry and they're good to go. Only takes a couple of days for them to completely dry off. There's no residues.

The boxes are now sterile and clean.

So in terms of putting the boxes back in, you'll see it's of course polystyrene, so it floats like that. You can see just how well bleached that wood is. All you do Balance the wood up like that, get the depth right. You can just get your lid on. And this is where you'll see that the clips come in so handy, 'cause it gives you the ability to temporarily clip down the boxes while you get the ratchet straps into position. And there we go, the dirty box is back in the solution, completely submerged.

It's a hot day today, so it is real hard work doing that.

Perfect time to do this is through the winter. And my technique that I'm using, I'm leaving it for 24 hours, coming back. If it's clean top and bottom, I take it out, change it back over.

pressure wash it to get rid of the residue, and then stack it up ready for use again.

If the top of it hasn't been submerged under the solution, come back after 24 hours, flip the box upside down, submerge it again for another 24 hours, and that way you're making sure that the top and the bottom are both sterile. So final word of caution when you're using that solution neat: gloves, long-arm protection, and goggles.

Once it's watered down, it's not quite as bad, but I would still use all adequate protection, especially when you're actually decanting the solution into the water. That's when it's liable to splash up and get you in the eye. This is a very, very effective method to combat any EFB bacteria in your polyhives, and you can see just how good it is at getting them nice and clean.