First year beek - appears I didn't have the bee-gap set properly in one of my hives, and now have burr comb formed between 2 frames in the bottom brood box (they were on undrawn foundation). I know what I did wrong, and my 2nd hive isn't having any issues.
However, the comb has capped brood in it so I don't want to destroy the comb just yet, so to correct the issue I was thinking about moving the offending frames into the box above and moving the drawn comb with brood in it from the above box down into it's place. Then, placing an excluder between the two boxes until the brood emerges, when I can then remove the unwanted burr comb and get the bees to re-draw the frame. I can then remove the excluder, and let the queen continue on with her job.
Does this sound like an appropriate way to deal with the situation? Or should I be doing something else to rectify it?
Many thanks,
Andy
Would it not be easier to find the queen and put her above the excluder?
That could work too, probably easier.
I'd let it go until early next spring. All the bees will have moved up into the top box(s), over winter, leaving the bottom empty. Remove it, fix it, stick it back on top. I'm lazy 8-).
I'm in Australia - it's currently late spring (I probably should have mentioned that)
What's the harm in letting it go? The bees don't care.
Lazy I tell ya, just plain lazy :-D
Where's the emoticon for a lazy bum? I need it.
haha :laugh:
I don't follow your remedy but I would just clean it up and let the queen get on with using the frames.
I tend to work on the KISS principle though.
Cheers
Rob.
Yes, you can do exactly what you proposed. Put the offending frame above the excluder and let the brood hatch out. And then scape the comb off and let them start over. Or since it is your spring time you can just go ahead and scape the brood off and let them redraw it out. I know you hate to scape off the brood but, it really won't set them back much in the spring. The bees quickly redraw frames in the spring. Either way really won't matter.
Thanks all!