BethsBees · Ontario, CA · Gear · Sep 26, 2026
Cleaning and storing queen excluders, supers and frames for winter — propolis, freezing, stacking?
Ontario, second year, three hives, and my garage is now a pile of sticky stuff: three metal queen excluders caked with propolis and burr comb, six medium supers of drawn comb, and a stack of empty frames. Last year I just left it all in a heap and found wax moth webbing in April, plus a mouse nest in one super. Not doing that again.
So, what's the actual routine? For the excluders — scrape, freeze, torch, hot water? I've heard the freezer makes propolis snap off but I've also heard hot water warps them. For the supers — freeze each one for 48 hours then stack? Do you leave the stack open to light and air or seal it? And can a cold Ontario garage do the wax moth job for me? Any product that's actually safe on comb?
#queen-excluder#propolis#wax-moth#comb-storage#winter-prep
▲ 2 votes
💬 2 replies
✅ Solved
DrentseBij · Sep 26, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
Excluders: freezer overnight, then flex them over a bin and the propolis shatters off — a hive tool finishes it. Never hot water on a framed wire excluder, the frame warps and the wires bend; a plastic one distorts even faster. Supers: 48 hours in the freezer kills wax moth at every stage, then stack crosswise with gaps so light and air get in, and put a queen excluder top and bottom of the stack as a mouse guard. Your unheated garage does the moth work once it's below about 10°C; the danger months are September and April. For a product, B401/Certan (Bt aizawai) is the only one I'd use.
SkaneBees · Sep 26, 2026
Small addition on the excluders: I dip my plain unframed wire ones in a bucket of hot water with washing soda after the freezer treatment, only for a minute, to loosen the last wax — never the framed ones, and I never let them sit. DrentseBij is right that heat is the enemy there. And label the supers with which hive they came off, so if anything shows up in spring you know where it started.
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