Advice on swapping old comb

[simonorchard]

Hi
So I purchased my bees on standard brood last season but changed all but one frame onto deep brood frames last year. I'd now like to swap out the one remaining standard brood frame as it's old and black and of course the bees build brace comb on the bottom to fill out the space in the deep brood box.

What's the best way to do this as the queen is laying in it and it has pollen and some surrounding stores.

Should I simply move it to the edge of the brood box on the other side of a frame of stores until all remaining brood is hatched and then shake bess off? And then move it to above the crown board for a couple of days so that any remaining nectar is taken down into the super? Will the nurse bees be ok looking after the remaining brood if split off from the rest of the brood at the edge? Will anything (ie pollen) be wasted?

All brood frames and all frames on 1 super have bees on so it's a full healthy colony.

thanks
Simon

 

[Tom Bick]

Why not just treat it in the same way you removed the frames last year

 

[simonorchard]

Ah well that would rely on me remembering what I did last year!!

 

[Tom Bick]

Ok then move it to the outside and if the queen decides not to lay in it and it is filled with stores remove it.

If full of stores you can keep it for a nuc or put it back at a later time.

What some people do is to purposely have a smaller frame in the BB in this case a standard frame in a 14x12 BB the bees build comb off the bottom this is often mostly drone comb and when it is capped over they cut it off as drone cull.

 

[Tom Bick]

No point putting it above the crown board as the bees will probably leave it and then fill the space around it with comb.