cross comb question

[Kelbor]

Hello all,
I did my spring investigation and found that the bottom box on one of my hives has cross comb in it. THe hive has one heavy, full of honey and bees, box and a lower that is pretty much empty save four sets of crossed comb....its not much, maybe 1/4 of the box, but the comb does have some honey and lots of bees on it. The box in question was scrapped together and added late last summer and just had some slats thrown in it (no grooves with wax or guides of any sort) so its my bad...So, I replaced the lower box with a better box with good slates but am unsure what to do with the cross combed box. I wanted to just pull it and "shoo" the bees off but did not want to accidentally hurt or loose the queen. So right now, as of yesterday, I placed the cross combed box on top of the full box which is on top of the nice, new box.

It was beautiful yesterday but now is raining - so the next nice day do I cut the cross comb out, trying to preserve it, and attach it to the slats in the bottom box? Or, do I brush the bees off it, press it, and feed the honey back to the bees? Im not sure if it has any eggs or larve in it so Im not sure.....

Thanks!

[Delta Bay]

Leave it on top and harvest at the end of the season when it is full of capped honey.

[Cacklewack]

Definitely do what Delta Bay suggested. Maybe you can harvest it sooner if there's no brood in it and the honey is all ripened!

Matt

[Kelbor]

Sounds good - thanks guys.

By the way, Matt, how do you know if it, the honey that is, has "ripened"? Does that mean capped? Thanks!

[Cacklewack]

You got it right!