Stupid frame mistake number 594 - what would you do?

tillie · May 11, 2008, 03:11:16 PM

Well, this is an argument for same-size frames - I just discovered that I put shallow frames in a medium box. We are in the middle of the honey flow so the bees have build honeycomb filled with uncapped honey between the two boxes, filling the gap. My thought is to immediately replace the shallow unbuilt frames with medium ones but then what to do with the honey filled but unripened burr comb?

Should I put a shim around the hive and put the comb on top of the frames? Should I chalk it up to a loss and simply melt the comb in the solar wax melter and use the honey in water for the bees?

What would you do?

Linda T making yet another beekeeper error in Atlanta!

johnnybigfish · May 11, 2008, 03:17:49 PM

Hi Linda!
As usual, I seem to be saying again' " Hey, I just did the same thing a few days ago!"...And I DID just discover I had done the same thing.
I just pulled the short frame out and stuck a big frame in its place. There was nothing but a little drawn comb in the small frame luckily. I just put the small frame into a honey super which, hopefully, will be stacked on another hive soon! :)
your friend,
john

Kathyp · May 11, 2008, 03:53:19 PM

can you scrape out that comb and just lay it out for the bees to clean up? that's what i do with the cut out comb. they do a good job in short order, and then you can take the wax and melt it down. as for the frames, swap them into a shallow and put them back on the hive to finish up.

JP · May 11, 2008, 03:57:57 PM

Can you get another shallow, cut the comb at the bottom of the shallow frames and put the shallow back in place? You'll have a little mess that they'll clean up. Seems to me the least obtrusive option, and you will get that open honey capped in a week or so.

...JP

tillie · May 11, 2008, 04:00:00 PM

This is a hive with 8 frame medium boxes - the only shallows I have are 10 frame so I have to move to a medium box - I'm thinking I'll take any big pieces and rubber band them into the medium frames, but will do as kathyp suggested and just leave the comb for the bees to clean up - I may have to put it on top of the inner cover until tomorrow with a shim.

Linda T

Brian D. Bray · May 11, 2008, 04:23:59 PM

You're just lucky you didn't put a shallow frame into a deep box. IMO it still argues for uniformity, with all the same sized equipment you don't have to work about different sized frames ending up in the wrong box. The only time I would allow shallow frames in my operation is for comb honey and most comb honey supers are even shallower than shallow supers by about 3/8 inch.

tillie · May 11, 2008, 05:19:14 PM

Well, I opened the hive and it wasn't as bad as I thought. The burr comb was on three frame bottoms and there was one frame with comb that had been drawn with nectar. So I scraped off the burr comb into a cake pan just to keep it all together. Since it was already in the cake pan, I put the cake pan on top of the inner cover. I didn't have a shim for an 8 frame box so I did have some 2X4s cut the right lengths so I set three 2X4 pieces up to make a shim until tomorrow and covered the whole thing with the telescoping cover. I left the one frame that had nectar on it leaning against the back of the hive so that the bees could transfer the nectar. Hope robbing doesn't happen as a result, but there's plenty of nectar for all in Hotlanta right now.

Here are the pics:

Linda T in Atlanta

Scadsobees · May 12, 2008, 10:24:43 AM

I've had to put shallow frames in a deep box (from a cutout). They just drew a nice comb on the bottom of it, and when I was ready to move it out I put it on the outside and then took it out and did as you did, Linda.

We (me and the bees) were both fine with it.

-rick

derrick1p1 · May 12, 2008, 04:49:47 PM

I too have decided to move towards all mediums. I've am having (and had) problems with different sized frames.

BTW, you'll all be seeing an email from me tomorrow most likely. I'm going into hive #1 (had a virgin queen), and my 2 queenless hives that I gave queen cells from #1. My concern here, best case scenerio, if all three have queens, will they draw comb (and have stores) for the winter this late in the season?

Wish me luck.

Brian D. Bray · May 13, 2008, 06:17:31 PM

Quote from: derrick1p1 on May 12, 2008, 04:49:47 PM
I too have decided to move towards all mediums. I've am having (and had) problems with different sized frames.

BTW, you'll all be seeing an email from me tomorrow most likely. I'm going into hive #1 (had a virgin queen), and my 2 queenless hives that I gave queen cells from #1. My concern here, best case scenerio, if all three have queens, will they draw comb (and have stores) for the winter this late in the season?

Wish me luck.

May is not late in the Season, it is just getting off to the big bang of the major honey flow. July might be considered too late, August probably, September definitely.

tillie · May 13, 2008, 07:09:57 PM

Since the major honey flow in Georgia ends in about 2 weeks, it is late in the season - we don't have a fall flow, but Derrick, I have had the bees in my yard make copious amounts of honey in July, despite what they say around here!

Linda T in Atlanta

derrick1p1 · May 13, 2008, 08:47:01 PM

I got my bees late May last year with no stores and by the end of July I had 2 full supers. And during a drought. Go figure. So maybe they'll find a way this year too.