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guardbee

New Bee
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Apr 26, 2010
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Location
uk
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First post from a very new beek.

My first colony arrived in a very battered national hive & seems to be doing very well indeed. Unfortunately, the frames have no spacers and the broodbox is jammed full of bees, comb & propolis that inspecting the frames & replacing them is a nightmare. I'm paranoid that I'll squash the queen (Havent seen her yet, but plenty of larvae)

So - the question is: - can I move the frames, after fitting them with plastic spacers to a new brood box (on the same site), and then just empty the remaining bees into the top?

And if so, should I leave the old hive close, or remove it completely

Thanks in advance
 
If the hive is whether proof i would do nothing you should just be doing you winter prep now treating and feeding if needed wait till spring and do a Baily come change
 
2 conflicting answers straight away! LOL (I Love this site!)


btw, I agree with RAB
 
you have several options....

you could swap frames into a better hive now, as you are suggesting

or

if (as has been asked) the hive they are in is sound enough to last the winter, either do a bailey change or shook swarm in the spring....



my preference would be to treat for varroa now, then feed up, then come the spring shook swarm into a new hive with self spacing (hoffman) frames

that way the colony gets into the winter strongly, well fed with a low varroa load, plus in the spring gets fresh frames / comb which also will drop your varroa loading and remove the old frames

:sifone:
 
Last edited:
First post from a very new beek.

My first colony arrived in a very battered national hive & seems to be doing very well indeed. Unfortunately, the frames have no spacers and the broodbox is jammed full of bees, comb & propolis that inspecting the frames & replacing them is a nightmare. I'm paranoid that I'll squash the queen (Havent seen her yet, but plenty of larvae)

So - the question is: - can I move the frames, after fitting them with plastic spacers to a new brood box (on the same site), and then just empty the remaining bees into the top?

And if so, should I leave the old hive close, or remove it completely

Thanks in advance
I would move them to your new hive and then get them ready for the winter. I doubt that you will be clumsy enough to harm the queen and will be surprised if you don’t see her when moving. Then shake the remaining bees into the new box and jobs a good un....already for next year. If the old box is serviceable I would check it over, maybe scorch and have ready for an A/S in the future.
Cheers
S
 
tonybloke,

No conflicting answers, as far as I could see. I simply answered the question (for a change).

I have extricated bees from an undersized brood box before now - about 2mm bee space.

That was not too easy! A better option might be to use a dummy, to ease up the removal problems and the rest might go away. 'Battered' gives visions of a potentially leaky beetainer to me.

Regards, RAB
 

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