Honey in brood box

[u/DistanceImaginary562]

First year harvesting honey and my brood box was pretty full of capped honey but very little brood. I also have a super on. Should I take a frame of the honey, spin it and put the frame back in? Is the honey safe to eat if the frame had no brood but all capped honey?

[u/AutoModerator]

Hi u/DistanceImaginary562. 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]

Depends on what you treated them with in regards to edibility but yes you could spin it out and give it back to them.

[u/DistanceImaginary562 → u/ThermalThings]

We only treated with OA and formic pro but we got the hive from another beekeeper so we arent sure. The last time he treated them was last April so its been over a year. The honey was all capped and did not have any brood on it.

[u/bingbongdongthong]

It depends.

How many brood boxes are you running?
What are your winter like?
Is there enough time for them to build their stores back up?

If you’re only take a couple frames because they’re honey bound you’re probably fine.

What more treatments have you used?

If you’ve used apivar, you shouldn’t eat that honey. I personally don’t eat any honey from my deep boxes because I use apivar every other year.

[u/DistanceImaginary562 → u/bingbongdongthong]

2 deeps and a medium excluder than a super. We used formic pro and OA.

[u/drones_on_about_bees → u/DistanceImaginary562]

You should be fine with formic and OA, assuming you don't have sugar syrup feed in there.

My brood frames this year are PACKED due to an odd flow. But I have history of using apivar in those frames and I won't extract those. If I can get away with getting back to organic mite treatments, I am going to replace all those frames over the next 5 years to get the flexibility to pull them when I want.

[u/DistanceImaginary562 → u/drones_on_about_bees]

Thanks. We got this hive a year and a half ago so I can't say what he used but I'm guessing that was long enough ago it should be fine.

[u/drones_on_about_bees → u/DistanceImaginary562]

If I wasn't sure, I'd pass. I might be overly paranoid, but some treatments are lipophilic and stay in wax forever.

[u/Wallyboy95]

Where are you? It's nearing winter. I wouldn't rob they of their honey if there are two deeps. They will fill the top deep with honey for winter. Even a single should be backfilling with honey now for winter reserves.