Worng sized frames in hive

[meroopt]

Hi all,

The more I delve into the hives I inherited the more I find there are some problems with them.  On the weekend I looked into the bottom box and found that the frames are short ones but the box is a full size one.  The consequences are that the bees are making bucket loads of messy comb in the empty space at the bottom of the hive.  I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to fix the problem. I was thinking about putting the frames into a new box and replacing the short ones with longer ones over the next few weeks.  I don't want to push the bees too hard though and get them to make a whole hives worth of new comb in a rush.

Thanks in advance,

Meroopt

[JP]

What type comb are they drawing, brood, honey? It is summer there now right? Flow on or no flow? Could probably weed them out gradually unless flow on and if its honeycomb, you could probably just harvest some and replace with right size frames.


...JP

[EasternShore]

HEY MATE!!!!!

Since it's spring down under and your girls should be in building mode I can suggest to pull the frames, move them to  another box above, cut the comb off and put them in the right size box if you have one. It's kind of natural for them to fill in the opening area so now you have natural comb. If its brood you could save it by rubber banding it into another frame the right size. They will fill it in. If your worried about working them too hard feed them 1/1 sugar water to boost them.

I/m pretty new but I've seen this already and done it. Wait for a few experts here to decide the best move.

[Ross]

Usually they just extend the comb off the bottom of the frame so it looks just like a deep frame.  I do that when I'm converting from deeps to mediums.