I was doing an inspection today. I did the check of 2 or 3 flow frames and they are filling them nicely. So beautiful.
I took the flow off and placed it so it had a gap.
Took the excluder off and went to pull my first frame out… then to my horror near the middle they had this bulging piece of comb and as i pulled it up honey and pupae fell out. I was so distraught. They got very angry and starting attacking. Fortunately i was protected but a few lost their lives for nothing.
Anyhow, has this every happened to anyone? What do i do? I feel like i really messed up.
It may be easier to pull an end frame first to give you space to work, also the queen is less
likely to be at the end and therefore less likely to get rolled.
I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it. I haven’t gotten pupae like you but I have scraped some honey and drowned and rolled some bees. It does feel awful!
You may be able to bend the comb straighter if you’re using foundation-less.
Otherwise, you can try rearranging/flipping frames to try to encourage them to make the come straighter but make sure there’s at lease a bee space between the combs or between the comb and the side of the box so the bees can still work it.
Also make sure that the frames are pushed completely shoulder to shoulder.
If you’re using a 10 frame box and they are all built out you can also remove a frame (making sure the remaining 9 are pushed together). Apparently the 10 frame boxes are not as roomy for 10 frames as the 8 frame boxes are for 8…
When your doing your regular hive inspections scrape off all the bur comb so there is lees brood to be killed during the next inspection. How long ago was your last inspection of the brood box?
Cheers
I do wonder why the 8 frames in an 8 frame box are a loose fit while in a 10 frame box they are a very tight fit, so tight I know some bee keepers who run them as a 9 frame box to make working on them so much easier.
Cheers Alok
My last inspection was 2.5 weeks ago. They have been very busy. 2.5 weeks ago there was NO honey in the flow. Now all the empty frames have comb and the flowhive has honey. Its beautiful.
To your other question - i bought the flowhive and 6 frame sorry. Then I bought a 5 frame nuc from a local apiary. The frames are so loose i made it a 7 frame but there are some gaps. i feel like i might have messed this one up. i hope they will forgive me.
It was 2 hours ago and I went out to just make sure they went back into the hive and 2 of them attacked me and I got stung in the arm. I hope they can forgive me and we can go back to our friendly relationship.
You should fill the brood box with frames, bees aren’t happy with wide spaces. I have experimented with no foundation in the past but now any frame I put in a hive has been wired and full sheets of foundation added. But then bees wax in Australia is contamination free compared to in the U.S…
Bees can be a bit angry during and shortly after an inspection, once you close up and know you have done your best just walk away from the hive, Going back to check the bees might thing ‘Oh hell, here we go again, he needs to be taught a lesson this time’.
Cheers Chris
