What To Do With a Frame of Brood From "Opening Up the Brood Box"

[Don'tWorryBeeHappy]

We're getting a way early spring, my peaches are already peak and the bees are bringing stuff in. I was considering trying to "open up the brood" box by removing a single deep frame (cuz that's what I hear your supposed to do). But was wondering what to do with the frame. As in, I hate to just kill off the brood in it and don't think I could start a Nuc with only a single deep frame and I don't want to pull 3 or more frames from it to start a nuc. I have a single deep for brood and mediums on top. Is there anyway to not lose all the brood off the frame?

[Dana]

Are you talking about this: http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm#opening kind of opening the broodnest? Where you insert an empty frame into the broodnest, to give the bees space for drawing comb and the queen a new place to lay? The frame(s) you removed are normally moved up a box. I'm not sure how you would do it if your boxes are different sizes.

[Don'tWorryBeeHappy]

Yes, that is what I was talking about and
Yes, that is my quandary with mixed box sizes. Didn't know about keeping same box size when I start out.

[jmgi]

Usually the outermost frames next to the walls of the hive don't have brood in them, you could pull those two deep frames and add two more frames of foundation, adding them each between two drawn combs in the center of the broodnest. John

[MDS]

Assuming you are replacing the frame of brood with foundation or another drawn comb. Right? Of course you don't just go from say 10 frames to 9 in a brood box.

Harvest honey out of the deep from a frame and put foundation back in to open up an extra space for a frame in the brood area.

If your question has to do with rotating frames to open up the brood area this is another thread. http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?251825-Questions-for-Those-That-Don-t-Rotate-Brood-Boxes&highlight=don%27t+rotate

Also you can start a nuc with one frame of brood (mixed eggs, larva, capped), a frame of honey and pollen and shake some nurse bees in it. The other three can be foundation or whatever. Feed the nuc if needed and you are off to a new hive.

[Adrian Quiney WI]

If you have a deep frame left over with brood. Put two medium supers above an excluder leave out one frame from each medium near the middle and dangle the deep frame from the top medium into the second medium. Do this with the frame with the most sealed brood on it and remove it when they emerge, then replace the two medium frames you pulled to dangle the deep one. There may be a little crazy comb, but nothing you can't fix. Bees will travel up through the excluder and take care of the brood.

[Michael Bush]

Manipulations when described are often simplified to the basic concept, for instance making room in the brood nest. The details are usually specific to your specific situation, and so they are usually left for you to work out. For instance, what you would do with a brood comb removed from the core of the brood nest depends on what you have available as room in your hive now, if you have different sized boxes for supers, if you have a queen excluder etc. Generally if that is your only box you will add another of the same size. If there is already a second (or more) brood box and there are empty frames or combs, then you probably swap with one of those. If you are in the deep south and you have only one deep and a shallow for brood and this is a deep, it gets more difficult. You may have to find a deep of honey and pull that out instead and go extract it. The point is, the details are specific to your equipment and management system.

The most versatile, of course, is all the same size boxes and no excluder. Then you generally take at least two brood combs and move the up to the next box (which you may or may not have to add first) and put them together in the center above the brood nest.