Dee, I’m not quite sure what you mean. I have put the pot back on and put it back in place on the green box. I also squeezed another two 50mm holes into the board under the pot.
Are you saying put the free comb onto a bottom board and a box over that then put the box that is currently under the pot on top?
Yes.
Make an entrance between the box that you put round the pot and the new box. Don’t worry about them making more comb there. They can’t make it more of a mess, (for you that is 
)
Ok, cool, so have an entrance between the boxes in the middle? I was hoping the keep the entrance in the current position at the bottom.
So once the free comb is in the bottom box what is the theory and direction for the future of the hive?
Thanks.
You have to keep checking the top box for brood. Once it’s there, make sure the queen is there too, put a queen excluder between the box and pot. Wait four weeks and take the pot away…
Moving the entrance will cause some congestion at first while the bees find the new one but it will prevent them storing lots of pollen in the bottom box…but it’s not imperative. You will also have to create small entrance** under** the excluder for the drones to get out.
You might be able to harvest some honey from the comb but what you can’t you can feed back to the bees.
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Ok so this weekend I’m going to move the comb from the pot onto the Bottom board as is and using an extension box I threw together last weekend and a deep I’ll cover the comb and put the box that is currently beneath the pot on top. From what I gather the queen should move up as Dee has suggested and then the following weekend I’ll do an inspection and see if the queen has moved from the pot comb. Fun times ahead. 
The general consensus was to move the entrance to the middle between the two boxes but I will probably make something up this weekend to fit when I inspect for the queen.
Does this plan sound sound?
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Yes …I love this thread, such a challenge for you…
and for us all throwing different methods at you.
Keep us posted, pics and all…oh and don’t forget a way out for the drones
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Hi Greg, that sounds like a good plan. I would take it a few meters away & work on it there so that the flying bees will go back to the box & not annoy you. It looks like a lot of that comb can be taken out to render down at a later date. I would only try to save the good worker comb. I see a few chalk brood mummies, I think. I would also remove any comb with a lot of chalk brood in it.
Sorry I missed this one 7 days ago.
Good luck with that, cheers
PS. the photos are perfect.
I’ve been waiting for you to pipe up Jeff. 
First of all before I start cutting up the comb I’d like to get the queen to move. Once I’ve excluded her in the top box I can go crazy on it, explore and strap into frames.
Hi & thanks Greg. If you work from the outside towards the middle & cut each piece off gently, looking out for the queen as you go. Shake the bees off each piece into the box. When you find the queen, gently nudge her into the box. It could take ages to get her into the box the other way. Chances are, she might like it up in the pot area & she’ll never go down into the box.
I think you have to bite the bullet & do it sooner rather than later. That way you can get the hive in some kind of order.
If you don’t see the queen & all the comb is off the board, just place the board upside down over the box separated by a couple of pieces of timber overnight. Or just shake the rest of the bees over the box. The next morning the queen should be on a brood frame. If you had killed the queen by accident, the bees will make a new one. Which could be a blessing in disguise because you don’t know how old the queen is anyway.
So it’s done, the pot comb was too large for the bow, width wise, so I cut some comb away and couldn’t stop, so all the comb is framed up in the bottom box and the top box is now the top box. Only a few stings penetrated the gloves…
Man there were soooo many bees and brood and they had joined back to the pot so needless to say I made quite a mess.
At least from the outside it looks more respectable… Two boxes minus a pot on top.
So now there is a cluster in a bush nearby… Do I knock it into a box or should I let them calm down and perhaps they’ll return to the hive?
I know I didn’t follow the plan, but I guess we’ll see where this goes…
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I am full of admiration for your persistence and hard work. Thanks for the update.
Dawn
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Thank you Dawn, I appreciate your kind words.
Anyway I had a cluster in an olliander bush, which is poisonous, after butchering the pot of bees. Now when I originally set the pot colony onto the hive there was a small cluster in the bushes which moved about 20 mtrs away after a few days. I was getting gear together to put them into a box however by the time I got my sh#t together they had gone, perhaps knocked by the dog or was investigated by the chooks. So this time I wasn’t waiting and got a hive ready with some empty brood strapped into frames, left over when I did the pot removal yesterday, and knocked them in. Within 20 mins they had left the hive and had clustered nearby. So a second attempt a short while age, with the entrance blocked up, I now have them all in the hive. I cut the branch off and placed it into the hive and quickly put the lid on. I’m not keen on leaving the olliander branch in there but it is what is.
So my question is, is it likely this will be successful, could there have been a queen in the cluster and if there wasn’t why were they clustering?
There were plenty of bees with pollen in their bags in the cluster.
Is it likely they will stay and how long before I should open the entrance. Or simply put where do I go from here?
The pot of bees minus the pot seems to be settled in with plenty of activity at the entrance, early days I know.
If the queen is in there and they are blocked in, you should be fine - leave them blocked in for 3 days - they will have no choice but to build comb - are there frames in there?
If not shake off the olliander and quickly put frames in and block up again.
and hope for the best
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Thanks for the quick reply Valli, yes there are four frames in it. Is it possible they were clustering without a queen? If so what is the purpose? And if it did have a queen could it have been the original pot queen? The old pot hive, as it shall be known from now on, was full and almost overflowing when I did the pot removal. On second thoughts maybe I’ll call it the green hive.
I will be putting the pot in the yard somewhere, maybe it’ll catch the eye of a scout in the future.
If the pot queen absconded - Swarmed it could be her.
95% chance you got the Queen if they were a resting swarm - she would be in the middle.
The only way to be certain is lock them up - there are frames in there - they should have all they need to produce wax and brood rearing. once she starts to lay they will stop so give them 3 days locked up and she should start laying.
Sit back and wait -, grab a beer - Job done
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Hiya guys just a quick update on this colony.
This is how it looked after the rework.
Now it’s beginning winter this colony is still going strong and the top box is still on with half filled frames uncapped. It’s my understanding I should be condensing to one box however I’m unsure what to do with the half filled frames if I do remove it. There is no qx.
I’ve finally been able to use smoke during inspections and wow what a difference.
On a side note the small swarm I captured and put into the flow hive either absconded or died out and wax moth made short work of the beautifully drawn out comb.
I have two Italian nukes ordered from two different reputable companies due in October and am in the process of preparing the hives which includes two flow hybrid supers which will hopefully go out in the front yard.
Really enjoying this new hobby and a big thanks to all who have helped me to this point.
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Fabulous update, thank you. I really admire the way you have gone about things with your bees so far. I think you will really enjoy them in the coming years.
Dawn
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Well I believe this colony swarmed behind my back as the super doesn’t have the bee density it had a couple of weeks ago, same traffic at the entrance though.
Ill be into the brood box today to pinch a frame of brood as we had a tree lopped on Thursday and it had a massive colony in it with comb spreading close to 2M down the hollow. Problem was it got lopped just before dark and I had to work the next day. By the time I got home and had a good look it was pretty messy. I did have to cut some of the branch open with a chainsaw to get at some comb too. I moved what I could into our last hive but I was rushed as it was getting dark. When I checked Saturday, the bees were clustering on another part of a broken log so I brushed them off into the box hoping the queen was there as I didn’t see it, I only had a small window of oportunity, I was in n babysitting duties and it was cold and windy at times so I’m going to assess today and pinch some brood if necessary. No photos unfortunately, I’ve been too rushed each time I’ve gone in.
If this capture is successful, with the two nucs we bought, from respectable suppliers, it will be four colonies in four 8 frame boxes with two nuc boxes in case of emergency and that’s it! No more! Zip. None. Nada. Zilch. Naught.
Famous last words?
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And some say it is not addictive. 
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