The large swarm I had hived into box 9 had drawn lots of new comb, fuelled by the 2litres of thin syrup I had given. Unfortunately I had used unwired foundation in the frames they had and one sheet had slipped out of the top of the frame, sagged and distorted, leaving a mangled mess of comb, nectar and eggs.
I could see this through the clear crownboard. Rather than allow it to get worse I carefully opened up and brushed the bees from either side of the lump into the box, carefully (if somewhat messily) removed the twisted mass and brushed the adhering bees into the box also. I introduced another frame of foundation, closed up the hive and will give the wax recovered to my son to make furniture polish.
A lesson learned - make sure unwired foundation is really securely fixed into the top of the frame!
I could see this through the clear crownboard. Rather than allow it to get worse I carefully opened up and brushed the bees from either side of the lump into the box, carefully (if somewhat messily) removed the twisted mass and brushed the adhering bees into the box also. I introduced another frame of foundation, closed up the hive and will give the wax recovered to my son to make furniture polish.
A lesson learned - make sure unwired foundation is really securely fixed into the top of the frame!
