Sticking super frames when inspecting.

[Tomo]

This is probably a daft question but here goes. I have a few drawn supers with old style large plastic ends. They are still in good order, however, a few times when separating supers to inspect I have pulled a frame or two up out of these supers, along with bees i.e. from the super below! I have tried twisting the super before lifting but still pull up frames. Do I need to twist and jiggle (the super that is!)? This is with a heavy full box of course. What do you do? Thanks.

 

[Swarm]

Sometimes happens, even when bee space is right. I lift up one end and if any lower frames come with it, I release them with the hive tool.

 

[MuswellMetro]

This is probably a daft question but here goes. I have a few drawn supers with old style large plastic ends. They are still in good order, however, a few times when separating supers to inspect I have pulled a frame or two up out of these supers, along with bees i.e. from the super below! I have tried twisting the super before lifting but still pull up frames. Do I need to twist and jiggle (the super that is!)? This is with a heavy full box of course. What do you do? Thanks.

Lets twist again like we did last Summer

you could try putting the supers boxes at 90 degrees to each other or scraping off ALL brace come before reasembling the stack

 

[Anduril]

Sometimes happens, even when bee space is right. I lift up one end and if any lower frames come with it, I release them with the hive tool.

If they are nasty little beasties I use a cheesewire.

 

[einsteinagogo]

This is probably a daft question but here goes. I have a few drawn supers with old style large plastic ends. They are still in good order, however, a few times when separating supers to inspect I have pulled a frame or two up out of these supers, along with bees i.e. from the super below! I have tried twisting the super before lifting but still pull up frames. Do I need to twist and jiggle (the super that is!)? This is with a heavy full box of course. What do you do? Thanks.

I had two colony like this last year, that stuck propolis everywhere, and I could lift three full supers that were "glued" together, it helps, if you've got another pair of hands.

I also tried alternating the supers, at 90 degrees, and it made no difference.

After the spring crop, Later in the year to stop it happening again, I would visit and scrap off, and clean tops of frames, it helped a bit.

But I agree it's a PITA.

 

[enrico]

If you place the supers at 90 degrees to each other it is impossible to lift the frame of the box below because the other frames next to the one you are lifting will keep the frame below in place.....but......they can still glue them together so that it is difficult to break the wax between the frames. If you use a j type hive tool and gently lift a frame by levering it on the frame next to it using the hook and the indent on the hive tool ( which is what it is there for) you will find it breaks the seal with the frame below. The other trick is to twist the whole box through 90 degrees before lifting but that can require quite a bit of strength and doesn't improve their mood if they are feisty!
E

 

[aseeryl]

You could try coating the frame edges with Vaseline.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

This is probably a daft question but here goes. I have a few drawn supers with old style large plastic ends. They are still in good order, however, a few times when separating supers to inspect I have pulled a frame or two up out of these supers, along with bees i.e. from the super below! I have tried twisting the super before lifting but still pull up frames. Do I need to twist and jiggle (the super that is!)? This is with a heavy full box of course. What do you do? Thanks.

Had exactly that problem with my strongest hive yesterday. Several frames bonded to the frames below. Used my j tool to remove individual top frames in turn and trimmed off the comb from the bottom edge before replacing. Lifted the super off and scraped the tops of the lower frames (a lot of honey therein).
The comb and honey removed to be crushed and strained for home use.

Reminder to self need to buy more supers and frames quick.