Frame Transport and Storage Boxes

Frame carrying and storage boxes are the lidded boxes, supers and crates used to carry hive frames with comb from the apiary to the extracting room, from hive to hive or to the store, protected from bees, dust, moisture and pests, and to store them out of season. Preventing robbing while honey frames are being carried, and preventing wax moth while empty combs are stored, are the main jobs of these boxes. This page covers the types of box, how to choose one, correct use and hygiene.

What is a frame carrying box for?

A beekeeper carries frames hundreds of times over a season: full honey frames at harvest, brood frames when making splits, spare combs during inspections, empty combs to the store in autumn. Every frame carried in the open carries these risks:

• Robbing: The smell of honey attracts bees quickly; an exposed honey frame can start robbing in the apiary.
• Comb breakage: Jolts and knocks break comb, especially fresh, full comb.
• Contamination: Dust, soil and insects get onto the honey frame.
• Chilling: A brood frame chills quickly in wind and cool weather.

A suitable box prevents all of these problems and leaves both your hands free.

Types of frame carrying and storage box

Frame carrying box with lid

A plastic or wooden box that usually takes 5–10 frames, with rails inside for the frame lugs, a handle and a tight lid. It is ideal for temporarily holding frames taken out during an inspection, carrying frames between hives and taking small amounts to the extracting room at harvest.

Super and drip tray

At harvest, the most common carrying box is the super itself. The full super is placed on a drip tray underneath with a tight lid on top; this way honey does not drip and bees cannot get in. Supers are stacked like this and loaded into the vehicle.

Nuc boxes

Small five-frame hives are used to carry frames with bees and to start new colonies. Thanks to their ventilated lids and closable entrances, brood frames can also be carried safely together with bees.

Storage boxes, cabinets and crates

Out of season, empty combs are stored in tightly closing crates, supers or comb cabinets. Here the main enemy is wax moth; how tightly the box closes, how easy it is to check and, if needed, its ventilation are the deciding factors.

What should you look for when choosing a frame box?

1. Frame size: The box must take the length and lugs of the frame you use (e.g. Langstroth or Dadant, brood or super); the frames must not swing.
2. Tight lid: It must be bee-proof. At harvest, every opening of the box must be closable.
3. Material: The inside of a box used for honey frames must be cleanable; if plastic, it must be food-grade; if wood, unpainted or finished in a food-safe way.
4. Drip protection: A drip tray in the base or a closed lower compartment for honey frames.
5. Ventilation: If frames with bees are to be carried, a mesh-covered ventilation opening in the lid is essential; otherwise the bees may overheat and suffocate.
6. Handles and weight: Full honey frames are heavy. Sturdy handles and a size suitable for carrying at waist height.
7. Stackability: The boxes should sit on top of each other without sliding in the vehicle and in the store.
8. Easy cleaning: A washable interior without corners; a material that can be disinfected if disease is suspected.

How are frames carried at harvest?

1. Clear the bees from the supers with a bee escape or a brush.
2. Put the super on a drip tray immediately and close the lid.
3. When loading the vehicle, stack the supers so that they cannot slide and strap them down.
4. The journey should be short and in the shade; comb left in the sun in a closed vehicle softens and breaks.
5. In the extracting room, keep the supers in a bee-proof area, still on their trays.

How are empty combs stored in boxes?

Extracted combs are first given to the bees to clean and allowed to dry, then put into storage. Store brood combs and super combs separately: old brood combs containing pollen and cocoon residues are the combs wax moth attacks most.

• Cool, dry place: Wax moth cannot develop in cool conditions; winter cold is the best protection.
• Protection by freezing: Keeping the combs in a deep freezer for a day or two before putting them in the box kills all stages of the moth. The box is then closed tightly so that no new eggs are laid.
• Light and air: Moths like darkness and still air. Stacking super combs crosswise in a place with light and air movement reduces the risk.
• Protection against mice: The openings of boxes and supers are closed so that mice cannot get in.
• Checks: Stored combs are checked at intervals; any frame showing webbing and frass is removed immediately.

Hygiene: do not spread disease

Frames and comb are among the most important routes by which bee diseases are carried between apiaries. Spores of the American foulbrood pathogen can remain viable for years in comb and honey residues.

• Do not use second-hand comb or boxes whose origin you do not know.
• Do not carry frames from a hive suspected of disease in shared boxes; keep the box separate and report it to the official veterinary service.
• Wash and dry the boxes at the end of the season; plastic boxes can be scraped and washed, wooden boxes can be scraped and lightly scorched on the surface with a flame.
• A simple mark on each box or super showing which apiary it came from makes traceability easier.

Common mistakes

• Carrying honey frames in an open crate or bucket.
• Leaving frames with bees in an unventilated box in the sun.
• Putting wet combs that the bees have not cleaned into a closed box.
• Storing brood and super combs mixed together.
• Never checking stored combs during the whole winter.