Old Frames in Brood box

[Jacar]

Guess I could be considered a second year bee keeper in rural Harris County near Houston, although I helped my Dad for years. I inspected an old hive this past weekend. I'm going to re-queen early next month. It was packed with bees and honey. Frames started coming apart when trying to inspect the bottom box, so I put it back together and added a medium super. I am thinking about setting up an empty box next to the hive and trying to rebuild the hive with a mix of new frames and existing frames if they don't come apart.

Any thoughts on the best way to do this? Should I put top box on the bottom then add the new box? Both boxes are packed with honey. Should I remove those and add empty drawn comb? Or should I just split it?

Thanks Jack.

[D Coates]

When you say "come apart" are the ears falling off the frames or are the nails pulling out of the top of the frame leaving the frame behind?  If it's just the hardware you can send a couple strategic nails in at a different angle and you're good to go.  If the ears are falling off that's a different story.  Keep using the "good frames", cycle the bad frames to the outside of the brood nest (1 or 10 position, assuming 10 frame boxes).  Once any brood is out of those frames (queens don't normally lay in the 1, 2 and 9, 10 frames) pull the frames out of the hive.  Put the replacement frames in the center of the broodnest.  Keep doing this until you've cycled the bad frames out.  It'll take a month or two at the most and offers the least amount of disruption to the hive.

Those bad frames?  Use them in your swarm traps.  Bees love the smell of old comb.  If you capture a swarm and they lay in the bad frame, cycle the frame out in the cycle I discussed above.

Side note, I've had frames with bad ears that were otherwise sound.  I pulled off the top bar and the wax foundation and drawn comb is left behind.  Line up the new top bar and tap it into place then secure it with nails.  Put it back in the hive and they'll make what little repairs are needed.  No drawn frame wasted.  For me to discard a frame to the swarm trap it's got to be REALLY black and wonky with drone cells all over it.

[Jacar]

Thanks for the reply. The top bar nails are coming out of frame #1 from the left side. I will go back in this weekend and try to replace the old ones. This hive was one of the old hives I inherited, so it's been almost 3 years since the bottom chamber frames have been pulled. I was thinking about starting with a new chamber and pull as many of the old frames that stay together and replace all of the bad frames with drawn comb.

I was also wondering if I should move the upper chamber to the bottom?

Jack

[D Coates]

Thanks for the reply. The top bar nails are coming out of frame #1 from the left side. I will go back in this weekend and try to replace the old ones. This hive was one of the old hives I inherited, so it's been almost 3 years since the bottom chamber frames have been pulled. I was thinking about starting with a new chamber and pull as many of the old frames that stay together and replace all of the bad frames with drawn comb.

I was also wondering if I should move the upper chamber to the bottom?

Jack

If the nails are going in vertically try sending an extra nail horizontally on each end that captures the sidebar into the topbar.  Moving the top deep to the bottom?  Heck, that's 100% up to you.  There's no perfect answer there.  Evaluate and make the call.