How To Restore A Beehive Frame From Scratch - Save Time And Money

In this video, I'm going to show you how to restore a frame like this and get it looking brand new once again. So why do you even need to replace frames? This one here is a really extreme example where a swarm has died over winter and we've got all of the rotting remains of the bees, and obviously we can't use this one again. But if you take a look at this frame here, here's another example of a frame that's been attacked by wax moths in storage. And again, all you need to do here is the same thing. We need to work out a way of restoring these frames to get them back to that foundation state. So going back to this frame, a lot of people think that there's a lot of beeswax to be recovered from this wax here. It looks like you'll get quite a lot from them, but from my own experience knowing that when you melt down this wax in the brood frames, there really isn't that much that comes out. Before we get going, I want to show you something in here which is yesterday's wax sludge that came through, and you can see just how little beeswax is Actually there. So when you start melting down these frames, and particularly the darker ones like this, this is what's left at the end of the day. And you can see little bits of wax in it. Over this side here, we've got like little thin sheets of wax, but there's not even much point reclaiming a lot of this. I have to say, when I have frames that are anything worse than that, all I do is I just chop them out and I get rid of the wax and I use it to burn or light stuff up in the log burner. And then I just put them straight into cleaning. However, if you're melting any frames down like this, this is really good, nice fresh wax. and you add this into cappings wax, which is the wax that the bees use to cap in the honey, and you'll end up with lovely grades of beeswax that I will show you in a second. So you can take gunk like this and render it into huge beeswax blocks, but just be wary, this stuff here does not contain much beeswax. This here would probably be 500 old brood frames to get something like this. Do I do this with mine? I do not. I burn all of the old frames and put new foundation in, but we do end up with lots of wax like this at the end of the year, just with our wax scrap bucket and the cappings wax as well. This is going to be a different video, but today I'm going to show you how to get these frames back into condition. So we're going to start clearing up these frames and getting them ready for processing. It is as simple as this. You need to take away everything that isn't the wood. Simple as that. So first thing I'm going to do is just scrape off all of those dead bees into the bucket. If you don't have any dead bees, don't worry about it. Now the reason that we do that is to try and keep any contamination. If there's diseased bees, we keep them in that bucket and we're going to burn them. And then also it just makes for much easier rendering down if you take away all of the dead bees. Now the next thing you do is you take your knife or your hive tool and you just want to start Cutting out that wax. This one here has horizontal wires all the way across and the wax is embedded within them. So you can melt it out or you can just cut across the lines like that. And then you start to push it through and it all just comes off the wires. If you get one like that that's caught in the middle, straight down. So once you get to this point, you want to give them a little bit of a clean. You want to get as much wax off as you can, and I like to make sure that top groove there is completely clear and make sure that this bottom gap here is clear as well. So this one here is done and ready for washing. This one is a pre-wired frame. I'm going to show you one that has pre-wired foundation in because it's slightly different but basically the same thing. So this frame here, instead of having the horizontal wires across like that built into the frame, this one has diagonal wires that are embedded into the foundation. It does make it a little bit easier to take it out. You don't really even need your knife. I just go up to the top like that, pull the wax through, and you can see it kind of comes all out at once. So the only problem that you have with the wires is that they are stuck underneath the wedge up here. So you can take it apart if you want. I wouldn't recommend it. I'd say just get your hive tool in, scrape off as much wax as you can, and then if you can, you can cut the cables at this point. But I don't even bother because once you get them into the boiling water, all of this softens up and you can just pull that metal out. So once you've got all your frames looking like this, the next step is to get them into the boiler and get them clean. So this is what the frames look like once they've been through the cleaner. I'm not going to show you too much of it now, but you can see the difference. One is clean and sterile, one is still covered in wax and maybe still covered in disease. So next step for these frames is putting them through the soda boiler, and let me show you that now. Big fire underneath, big galvanized tin at the top here, and it's got a pressure seal on it, so you take that off And then inside here we have a big pot of very, very hot boiling washing soda. You need to get loads of washing soda in here, standard washing soda. I use 10 packets into a 30-liter mix like this. Get it up to temperature, get it boiling, give it a really, really good stir, and then the frames go in. So what's so good about this device here is that you can get the pressure into it. Tightening this up here seals everything around. The heat underneath heats the water, heats that washing soda, and gets it to a really fiery boiling mix. All I need to do then is put my old frames in, the ones that are covered in that wax, and all of that washing soda, all of that heat, all of that steam just strips it all off. And then the final thing we need to do is dip it in some boiling water to rinse it out, let them dry, and they're ready for rewaxing. So next job is getting these frames into that boiler, but if you just chuck them in, because they're wood, they float and they're very, very difficult to manage. So what a lot of people do is stack them up in little bundles like this, and if you flip them around like that, you can get really nice stacks all the way. And then if you want, you can just tie it up into a bundle like that, and it's a much easier bundle to use. People like to do it in batches of 10 or 11 to go in the boxes. Really sensible solution, and you can make use of the additional wire if you've got some spare as well. So I've got my bundle of frames here, and they just go straight in like that, and then strap everything up, get that pressure going again, and then these frames will be very clean at the end. So now we play the waiting game. You need to get the water back up to boil, stick loads of logs in there, get it super, super hot, And then you need to wait 12 minutes. The combination of that water and steam will break down all of that wax, break down the propolis, and leave those frames incredibly clean and sterile. When you take them out, there might still be a little bit of gunk on it, so I've set up another water tank there with boiling water, and all I'm gonna do is go in, take out each and every individual frame, dunk it in the boiling water, give it a shake, leave it to dry, and then it is ready for waxing. So we've got the boiling water on the Solo stove. Bit of mist over it, but it is over 100 degrees, a really rolling boil of water there. Then it's as simple as that. Open up the frames, give them a little bit of a swill, get as much off as you can into the boiling water, and give them a really good clean. At that point, if you've got any metalwork on there, comes off so much easier at that point. You can kind of just pull it off, and that frame there is done. So once I've dipped them in the water, I place them here into a little jig that I've made, and I just let them Air dry. You want to get them completely dry before you go on to the next steps. So these frames here, these are the ones that I did yesterday, completely cleaned, gone in the boiler, and then they've come out like that and I've left them to air dry. And you can see on here there is not a single flake of wax left on them. So once they're both dry, we've still got the wired frame and the wireless frame. I'll leave these to completely dry now and then I'll get them both wired up and finish off that video. So if you want to speed things up, you can tie them up in bundles like I said, or you can just pick them out in threes like that. Give them a good swill. These gloves really will protect you. I'm putting my hand into boiling water here and I literally can't feel it. There we go, 3 in 1, and you can see the steam coming off them. These are fully sterilized frames. So on to the final part of the process now, which is rewaxing. But let's take a look at these frames again. They really do come out super, super clean. No wax, no propolis, and because you boiled them, they are effectively sterile from EFB. Now if you've got AFB, American foulbrood, you're burning the lot and starting again. But if you've got EFB or even think that you've got EFB, which is European foulbrood, and you're not sure of the status, this process here will sterilize the frames and get them back to where you want to be. Really important that you understand how to do this. It will save your entire apiary from coming down with disease. So this frame here has come through with the wires intact. The wires are still nice and tight, so nothing else needs to be done to that one. And then this one here is the one without the wires in. And as you can see, completely clean once again. I'm going to get some foundation in this one here and I'll show you how to rewire that one there as well. So all you need to do now to restore the frame that doesn't have the wires in is pop out the wedge like that. Just get your hive tool in. It'll come out really easily. You can see, still got the nails in there. So then we come to put the foundation down in the top. And this is where it's so important to make sure that that groove is completely clear. You have to do a good job cleaning out all the wax and the propolis and boiling it to make this part easy. If you skimp on the earlier stages, this bit becomes really difficult. But if you've done it right, it means that you can just get your sheet of foundation in like that, pop it through the holes, and then you see it just goes straight down. I curl up the ends like that, like I always do, and then I take my wedge and you can literally just knock it back in like that. But then what I always do whenever I'm restoring any frames like that, I make sure that I use a really good pin nailer to compress that wedge in, and I'll always try and get the nail to go through where the wire was to give it some extra structural support. So there we go, this frame is complete, it's clean, it's sterile. I've got my wax in there, that is ready to go into the beehive. Let me quickly show you now how to add the foundation in if you've got a wired frame that is completely clean. So the wired frames are arguably a little bit easier to rewax, but I'm not a massive fan of the system. I have to say, I prefer my frames unwired and I like to wire the foundation like that. But a lot of people do use this system here, which is wired frames. So once you've got it to this point, this frame is sterile, it's clean, it's ready to go. All you do is you take a piece of foundation with no wires in it whatsoever, you place it onto the frame like that, and you get yourself an electric car battery charger. Positive terminal, negative terminal. You can use 12-volt, 24-volt is a lot better, a lot quicker. And then all you're gonna do is just run an electric current through the wire. It's gonna be hot. It warms it up, melts the beeswax, and embeds it in. I've not got my car charger with me today, but I've been doing this all the way throughout winter. So I'll show you on the video now overlaid exactly how this works. So once that bit of foundation is embedded in the wires, this one is complete, this one's complete too. And this is how you restore your frames from old manky frames that can carry disease to sterile new frames that are ready to go back on the beehive. So hopefully you enjoyed that video. If you wanna find out more about beekeeping and give your bees the very best chance, then check out our 14-day beekeeper course where it will turn you from a beginner to a competent beekeeper in just 14 days. Woo!