problem with wild comb

[nogs]

back in July I noticed my hive was bearding. packed the hive was. with one deep brood box and one super I panicked and added another brood box with only 5 frames in as that's all I had at the time. when I got me some more frames it was to late and bees have filled the void with wild comb which is attached to the bottom brood box. thus not allowing me to lift the top brood box without damaging the brood comb and inadvertently killing the queen. My question is what should I do right now. The bees are still busy on the heather flow. So set up is national hive, full brood box on the bottom, 2nd one up is the brood box with half frames and
then two super's on top of those.

 

[ratcatcher]

simplest thing would be to place supers at bottom, remove any queen excluders, wait till next year, the brood nest should be reduced down to the bottom brood box, then using a wood saw, slice through the comb where the two brood boxes join, and remove the top box

or if you want to do it now, place that wild comb into empty frames held in place with elastic bands after slicing through with your saw

 

[nogs]

blimey that's what I get for panicking damn and blast. thanks for the advice

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You're more likely to get the cluster in the topmost box come spring. However, if the heather flow is that good you may find that they've backfilled down to the bottom BB, or at least to the middle frames therefore a chance to remove any offending brace comb and get your chosen BB on top of the stack.

 

[Taylan]

Wild Comb

back in July I noticed my hive was bearding. packed the hive was. with one deep brood box and one super I panicked and added another brood box with only 5 frames in as that's all I had at the time. when I got me some more frames it was to late and bees have filled the void with wild comb which is attached to the bottom brood box. thus not allowing me to lift the top brood box without damaging the brood comb and inadvertently killing the queen. My question is what should I do right now. The bees are still busy on the heather flow. So set up is national hive, full brood box on the bottom, 2nd one up is the brood box with half frames and
then two super's on top of those.

Would it not be possible to get a cheese wire between the two brood boxes I don't think that would cause to much upset or damage I would give it a try!

 

[dpearce4]

Would it not be possible to get a cheese wire between the two brood boxes I don't think that would cause to much upset or damage I would give it a try!

great suggestion taylan, if nogs cant get a cheese wire he could use a bread knife or similar. my suggestion would be to have a second beekeeper with him though to be able to slowly lift the top brood box from one side while the cuts are done until it is free, and then go through the frames together to find the queen if she happens to be up there. if there is brood in the upper brood box place the Qx below and place back on the lower bbox and allow the brood to emerge before you then remove the upper brood box when you remove the heather honey. that should sort out the problem.

 

[bontbee]

Would it not be possible to get a cheese wire between the two brood boxes I don't think that would cause to much upset or damage I would give it a try!

just as Taylan suggests here, I think that Japanese hive owners use a cheese-wire type thing to separate the boxes to get at the crop...

 

[wessexmario]

fishing line would be another thing that would cut through comb, it's thin diameter and high breaking strain would make it easy to pull between the supers, but do wrap it around something to pull it or it'll cut through fingers as well.