In this short instructional video, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey demonstrates how to sterilize a second‑hand wooden cedar super using a professional blowtorch. He explains why regular sterilization of secondhand or failed hives is essential to eliminate hidden pathogens, and contrasts the appropriate treatment for wooden hives (scorching) with the chemical methods used for poly hives (bleach, Cillit Bang, soda crystals). Edwards advises using a large plumber’s blowtorch rather than a small chef’s torch to achieve efficient heating without excessive fuel consumption. He walks through the preparation of the super, emphasizing that only unpainted interior surfaces and runners should be scorched, and that the wood should be heated to a light brown color—not black or charred—to ensure pathogen kill while preserving the wood. He highlights visual cues for proper scorching, warns against scorching painted surfaces, and notes that the exterior can be treated optionally. The video concludes with a reminder that once properly scorched, the super is ready for reuse, while also acknowledging the inherent risks of secondhand equipment, which he will address in a separate video.
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Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping and a super short Bite-Sized Bees. So what we're going to do in this video is we're going to take an old wooden cedar super and we're going to show you how to sterilize it using a blowtorch. So when you get secondhand kit or you have a colony that fails inside a hive, really, really good to get into the habit of sterilizing your kit. Bring it in secondhand or something's gone wrong with it, or even on a regular basis. Obviously with poly hives you can do a bleach solution, you can use some Cillit Bang, and you can use soda crystals. With wood you want to go down the scorching treatment. That's what's best and that's what's going to kill any pathogens that are lurking in any of the corners. Now I know a lot of people will have like a little chef's torch like this. I think you want to get a big blowtorch like that. That's really going to help you when you come to sterilize. You can do it with this, but it's going to take you so much longer and you're going to get through a huge amount of butane. So it can be done, but I would recommend going for a big proper professional plumber's blowtorch. So what you want to do is you want to get your super prepared, and this is a really poor quality secondhand super that I was given for free. I'm doing a separate video showing the, the pros and cons between buying secondhand equipment and buying new seconds equipment. One thing to note on here though is that this is a cedar super, but But it's been painted on the outside. So don't go scorching any of the paint. It's just gonna flake off and then make it actually even worse. So when you're scorching it, you only wanna scorch unpainted surfaces. And if it's not painted on the outside, there's no harm doing the outside as well, but there's probably not much benefit. I never do the outside. I just scorch all the way around inside and all of the runners on the top and bottom. So like I said, this is gonna be a really quick video. Get your blowtorch going, nice strong blowtorch, get it on a good flame, and then you just wanna start flaming it all over like that. And take your time. You're not looking for black. You don't need to scorch it down to black, but if you get a little bit of browning, that's not the end of the world. You just take your time going over it, getting into all of the corners. So what you're looking to do is you're looking to get into every single nook and cranny. You want to get all around the box, into all the corners, into all the runners, any little gaps or crevices, and you want to give it a really a good blast with a blowtorch. It doesn't need to be black, it doesn't need to be charcoal, you just need to have some sort of reference to show that you've heated up that area. So I like to go for just a really light brown all the way over the insides, and then I know that I've got all of the areas. I'll make sure that I get all of the tops and the bottoms of the boxes as well, just so nothing's missed. And I don't do the outside of the boxes even if they're unpainted, but there's no harm in doing them if that's what you want to do, and it does look quite nice. You're not looking to cremate it. So I'm gonna show you on this part of the video what is too far. And if you do this, it doesn't matter too, too much, but this isn't what you're aiming for. You're not looking to cremate the wood. You're looking to just get it to take that heat. And I find that ever so slight tinge of brown gives you a good indication that you've got enough heat on there to kill any pathogens. So that's it. It's really, really quick. Once you've scorched these boxes, they're pretty much good to go. If you're gonna use them again, Once they're scorched, you can use them again. That should kill off the majority of pathogens. You're always going to have the risk with secondhand kit that there's going to be something nasty lying in there, and we're going to cover that on a separate video talking about the risks of using secondhand kit. But I just wanted to do a really quick video showing you what you're looking to do when you're scorching your boxes on the inside to try and kill those pathogens. So I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope you found this one useful. As always, please hit the subscribe button, Please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time. Bye.
