Question on feeding back a frame

[c10250]

I supered with deeps this year with the plans of saving a frame or two for the bees in late winter or early spring. I was thinking . . . How exactly do you do this? I realize the answer is "stick it in the hive", but I was wondering about such things as breaking up the cluster, or where exactly to put it.

For example do I not break up the cluster and put it on the end? Will they get to it??

Or . . . Do I just pull a frame in the middle, knock the bees back into the hive, and replace the frame??

One more question, should I freeze this frame until I want to feed back?

THANKS!

Ken

[alpha6]

First...don't freeze the frame. It will take the bees longer to bring the honey to temp if you do this and they will have to burn more energy which means more food.

Second...don't break up the cluster. Their are two ways (I am sure there are others) that I do it. One is to wait for a sunny day when the bees have broken cluster and are house cleaning and taking cleansing flights. Pull empty frames and place in your full ones as close to the center as possible. The second is to just place the full frames in a hive box on top of your hive so they just move up into it. This is what I do when it's cold and they are out of honey. I just stack on the third box and they move up into it.

Good luck

[c10250]

First...don't freeze the frame. It will take the bees longer to bring the honey to temp if you do this and they will have to burn more energy which means more food.
Good luck

I guess I should have said that I planned on warming the frame to a nice 72 degrees before I give it back . . .

Thanks for the tips.