nested frames

[mmundy]

Occasionally I find two frames that have irregular comb built between them in such a way that I cannot pull one straight up and out with out busting open honey and brood cells. This is a nasty job and I fear for hurting the queen. Got any ideas if I should worry about this or find another way to separate these nested frames?

Yes, I do use Duragilt.

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Michael Mundy
Liberty Missouri
http://www.geocities.com/libertybees/

[Clayton]

Yuck.........duraguilt!!!!! Never been a fan of the stuff.

At any rate I'd pull a comb that is not near such frames and make room to slide the problem combs over gently. Take out your hand pocket knife or kitchen knife or whatever you got and gently cut off comb that is sticking out. Be careful not to pull the wax off the duraguilt. If it is impossible to do this slide the problem comb to the outside allow the brood to emerge and cull and replace. Are you by anychance running nine frames per box?

Clay

[BjornBee]

Aways start with the outside frame being removed. This frame is usually all honey with no brood and the queen nowhere near to get hurt. Then proceed lifting the frames out after some room has been made. You may still tear some of this comb/brood but to a minimum.
Always put them back in the same order as removed.
For a quick inspection to the center of the hive, do the same but slide the next two or three frames as a whole and inspect the center frame(s) for new brood, etc.
You should never expect to just lift the center frame out without possible brood damage to include the queen.
**Most information from inspections can be obtained if you know what your looking at by not doing a full frame by frame inspection.

[Michael Bush]

Reasons for combs crosscombed and attached:

Spacing: in the brood chamber the frames should be packed against each other with the excess space on the outsides. 10 frames to a normal sized box.

Warped foundation: This, of course, messes up the spacing by the amount the foundation warped. Sometimes it ends up half out of the frame and then it's a real mess.

[mmundy]

Thanks for all the advice! I always use 10 frames in the hive bodies. Once I've got several supers worth of drawn comb, I'll start doing 9 frames, but only in the supers. I will make sure to slide the frames sideways before pulling up so I don't bump cross-comb into the top bar of the frame.