All,
Put on the third hive body, but the frames in this one have starter strips because ....
The frames in the bottom two hive bodies (brood boxes if you will) are, and I'm trying to be charitable here ... ugly. Like, frames-joined-together-can't-get-them-apart-without-destroying-the-comb ugly. They're so bad, I didn't even try to remove any frames from the bottom box.
The good news is that there is capped brood (I didn't look for eggs) and lots of bees; the colony seems to be doing fine. I'll admit that I've let the bees get the better of me on the comb, but I hope the starter strips will get things on a more even keel.
But it begs the question: how do I fix it? I can resign myself to having to replace all of the wayward frames but I hate to think I'll set my girls back even more (understand that my objective this year is to have a healthy hive, not get a ton of honey). And if the starter strips don't get significantly better comb then I'm at a loss.
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!
Anthony
I assume that the bottom two boxes are foundationless. Do you have any straight drawn frames that you could move to the third box? It would help because bees may start to draw comb from the bottom of the frames in your third box. They need a reason(ladder) to go to the top of the frame and draw down following your starter strips. I put a box of foundationless frames on and they drew comb from the bottom of the frame at a 45 degree angle to the frames. They drew comb across four frames before I caught them and stuck a frame with foundation in it to stop them. The rest was drawn straight.
>how do I fix it?
I see three options.
One is to treat it like a cutout an rubberband the frames back in place as straight as you can.
Two is to wait til next spring and hopefully the will be in the top box. Then you can remove the bottom when empty.
Three is to put your super underneath your brood boxes. Hopefully they will move the brood box down and backfill the bad comb with honey and then you can remove it.
Yes, the bottom two boxes are foundationless.
aw
Since it's a mess then I'd leave it alone and let them fill the box up with bees before I done anything to them. "Many hands makes light work".
You can move the brood box up and give them empty frames with wax strips across the top or get a piece of 1/2" deep wood strip in the top grove and paint it with melted wax. The bees will build down and make nice neat frames. Keep moving the cross comb up until they fill it with honey. Then remove it and use cut and strain to remove they honey.
Jim