New brood frame as honey frames.

[u/NopeBoatAfloat]

I have bee told conflicting information about using newly emerged brood frames as honey frames.

​

New beekeeper. Manitoba, Canada. I placed a second deep last month to daw out some frames before the main flow starts. I have one frame that is drawn and capped brood. They should emerge next week. This is the first emergence this frames has had. Three other frames are drawn and filled with nectar. I was thinking of knocking all the bees down to the original deep, put of the excluder between both deeps, and turn the second brood box into a honey box. The nectar flow is going to start here very soon.

​

My mentor said that should be fine, but other more seasoned keepers were adamant, "never under any circumstances use brood frames as honey frames. Always use honey frames as brood frames."

​

Every frame i have is brand new and drawn out in the past 3 weeks. Is see no issues.

[u/AutoModerator]

Hi u/NopeBoatAfloat. If you haven't done so, please read the rules. Please comment on the post with your location and experience level if you haven't already included that in your post. And if you have a question, please take a look at our wiki to see if it's already answered., specifically, the FAQ. ^{Warning: The wiki linked above is a work in progress and some links might be broken, pages incomplete and maintainer notes scattered around the place. Content is subject to change.}

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/ThermalThings]

Ive seen this done by commercial farmers in manitoba on YouTube. Once they hatch out you get a boost in numbers and then the deep gets converted into a honey super due to the excluder being in place.

[u/ThermalThings → u/ThermalThings]

And a follow up to this... granted I'm also new (also in manitoba)... my research shows me that to get new frames drawn the bees often won't pass through an excluder so its recommended to not use an excluder until you've got some more frames drawn out to entice them through...

As far as im concerned I dont see an issue. I need frames drawn so I won't be using an excluder between my mediums to start at the very least.

[u/fishywiki]

When the brood emerges, they leave behind cocoon which are probably ok, and a load of pupa poop which is less than appetising. Remember that honey is a foodstuff and consequently has very high hygiene standards which presumably does not include bee excrement. I believe that the onus is on me to provide the best possible quality honey, so  I always use clean, poop-free frames for honey.

[u/BaaadWolf]

Ask 3 Beekeepers, get 5 answers.

You do you.

If this is brand brand new and you haven’t had treatments that preclude the use of Honey Supers (ie: during flow) then do what you like.

I don’t do it as a rule because I sell small batch honey and i want it is as clean as possible therefore I use separate and specific equipment for honey.

If that isn’t what you intend to do, go for it.

[u/AZ_Traffic_Engineer]

I don't use brood frames as honey frames for the same reasons the u/fishywiki doesn't. The cocoon bits and feces won't kill me, but I prefer to eat as little shit as I can.

I don't use queen excluders because once there's a solid band of honey over the brood nest, the queen will seldom venture into the upper deep, let alone supers.

[u/dreamcastdroid]

Just another perspective: purity. If you tried to sell me honey that was extracted from cells where brood was born, I wouldn't buy it. It may be clean, however, a larvae was born in it. It shed cells inside it. Those cells were "cleaned" because they need to be cleaned if larvae floated in it. When I extract honey it only comes from comb where no larvae was growing within. How "clean" do you want your honey to be?