I’m glad this rotating topic has come up, thanks guys 
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Certainly doesn’t look like pleasant weather you are getting over there @JeffH!
Last inspection I did during the last warm weather we had a month back I placed a fd box above the super hive mat. I had to lift the lid a couple of times to let the odd drone out and I havnt had an oportunity to remove the box since. I think I only had a couple of frames of brood and a couple of honey so it wasn’t a full box. I’ll have a look today before the footy.
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Hi Skeggley, Whenever Jeff puts a frame of brood above the queen excluder her either cuts the drone comb out or damages it, so the bees will discard it, before the drone get a chance to emerge. I was wondering what an fd box is. Wilma
Hiya Wilma, fd full depth, I’m lazy and type with one finger 
I’ll keep it in mind about the drone culling, thanks.
Hi Skeg, it’s Jeff again, why didn’t I think of that? of course. The heat got to me yesterday. I only did a bit of watering & picked a few strawberries in the heat of the day. I’m still feeling the effects of it today.
I also only type with one finger 
I’m in awe of people who type with 2 hands.
I never think of it as “drone culling”, I just cut it out so they wont emerge & get their heads stuck in the QX. It is a kind of SHB strategy, if too many drones get stuck in QX’s, beetles can lay eggs in their bodies.
While the worker bees are emerging & the bees are replacing them with honey, they will also rebuild any gaps with comb & fill that with honey as well.
Ah, so no potatoes for tea then, Jeff? 
Hi Dawn, I did a lot of that after about 3.00 o’clock, then I had to come inside. Even that heat got to me. I finished off what I didn’t finish after 5.00. So spuds for tea last night They are just about finished now. I’ll be concentrating on sweet potatoes from now on for the next few months. We have a lot of blanched spuds in the freezer for the mean time.
CAhhh… That would have been a good idea Jeff but I got In there at 8:30am. The hive is in shade at that time and it wasn’t too bad. I did what I said I was going to but i did notice play cups in the same area as last week. No larva and I broke them down, then put that frame in the small hive, replacing it with a partially drawn but empty frame. Didn’t see any others on adjacent frames. Truth is, as much as I try to learn, I’m just 10 months into beekeeping and I’m never absolutely sure if I’m doing the right thing. Guess we’ll see… i have a couple of swarm lures 50 metres or so away just in case. (Good old broccoli boxes with a bit of old brood comb and a dab of lemongrass oil on a tissue!)
You never know Cathie, you might catch a swarm or two. I wouldn’t like my chances up here. The phone has been very quiet in the swarm department. I got a call about one the other day, I grabbed it.
You’ll do fine Cathie, you are picking things up quickly.
PS, I just woke up to the fact that you could have put the swarm lures out in case your own hive swarms. As long as you are removing brood & giving them more work to do & in particular looking out for queen cells, your lures wont be needed for your own bees. Remember it takes around 2 weeks for a colony to prepare to swarm. Also when I remove brood frames, I select the frames with the most sealed & hatching brood.
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Does anyone have any tips on how to help avoid crushing the queen during a split or brood inspection? Today during a split, there were so many bees everywhere, and the top of the sides of the frames where they butt together was no exception. I was concerned that the queen might have been there, and that I may have crushed her when putting the frames back in and pushing them together.
Hi Dan, with that many bees this time of year, it could be time to do a split before they start preparing to swarm.
However, to answer your question, I generally look down to see which frame I think will be the easiest one to remove first. I gently move the other frames slightly away & remove any bridging comb before removing it. After that, each frame is easy. I generally stand the frame on it’s end & lean it on the super. You can rest it in an empty super or some other arrangement we see on the internet. If the frame is too covered in bees to properly inspect it, I usually just give it a gentle shake into the brood box, so as to remove half the bees, then the frame is ready to inspect.
It’s always a good idea to remove any bridging comb off the frames before replacing them. Then you can return frames without squashing any bees. This is why I like straight brood comb, so they all go back together without squashing any bees. Use a little bit of smoke to drive the bees away from where you want to return the frame, if necessary.
Good luck with it Dan, cheers
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@JeffH
Thanks Jeff. It was during the undertaking of the split when my difficulties occurred. It was mainly as I was pushing the frames back together so I could fit all 8 in. Smoking the ends of the frame seemed to be of little use because there were so many bees and so little room, and moving the frames together slowly still caught and pinched some (and killed them of course). Perhaps rather than pushing them together, I need to lower them hard up against the frame that is in the box. Thing is, there were lots of bees over any frame still in the box, so that could be an issue with rolling the queen too.
Yes for sure Dan. Sounds like that colony needs to be weakened out a bit.
Just keep on practicing using a little smoke to drive them away, You could gently shake half of the bees off first, that will work.
I was invited to take a nuc from a flow hive yesterday as swarm prevention. The owner didn’t want a second hive. This hive was like what you’re describing. Once I took every second brood frame with bees away, it was easy to replace the remaining brood frames along with the frames with fresh foundation without killing many bees.
It was hard to find the queen in amongst so many bees, but we found her. The good thing was that they hadn’t started swarm preparations yet. Also the bees looked familiar, only more of them
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