Changing to OMFs

[teignbee]

I am about to change my floors to omfs. Can any body give me any advice about removing the solid floors and replacing them with the omfs? Mainly worried about lifting the brood boxes off the floors,am i going to loose my queen etc

 

[mark s]

i changed mine yesterday and the only trouble i had was lifting the brood box,apart from that just be nice and gentle and you will be fine

 

[taff..]

if you are worried about killing the queen, you could find her and cage her untill you've finished the moving

 

[JCBrum]

If you do it a mid-day on a fine day most of the foraging bees will be out, leaving nurse bees adhering to the frames. Just 'crack' the joint with your hive tool to free any propolis and lift the BB with the old floor to a position aside, maybe resting on the upturned roof.

Then put your new floor on the hive stand and lift the BB onto it. Job done.

JC.

 

[rae]

We did it to one of the hives this w/e. Ideally two people - one to lift the brood box and the other to swap the floors over. Brood box is HEAVY.

 

[Onge]

Apart from the weight of the brood box you should have no trouble at all.

As above just crack the floor off and stick the new one on, don't worry about the queen.

 

[Rosti]

You may not have this luxury in terms of space on your stand? I use a 2 hive stand but it has space for 3. When replacing the floor then position a fresh floor next to the hive in question (in the middle location). Don't inspect first, remove uppers, smooth even lift of the brood to the new floor, inspect old floor and remove, move hive back to original position. Good luck, R

 

[teignbee]

Thanks again for the replies. I wont be doing them this week as still in the middle of treating with apiguard. I will let you know how it goes.