Putting the frames back exactly as they were?

[Wyvern]

I have seen several references to taking the frames or top bars out for inspection, and always see that you are supposed to put them back in the same orientation as you removed them. Why? What will happen if I put one back rotated 180 degrees? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Bush_84]

What if somebody came into your house and rearranged your whol house while you were gone? You would probably figure it out but it would take time to put things back. The same goes for the hive.

[Capricorn]

For the most part I just think that it is that the bees have it arranged how they want it or need it. No point in messing that up. Unless you have a reason to mess it up. IE., you want to expand the brood nest or you want the queen to lay on some new clean comb, or you are rotating out some frames, etc., etc.. There is a bit of a deeper discussion of comb positioning when you look into housel positioning, but I never totally understood all of that..

[Michael Bush]

>I have seen several references to taking the frames or top bars out for inspection, and always see that you are supposed to put them back in the same orientation as you removed them. Why? What will happen if I put one back rotated 180 degrees?

As mentioned there is the issue of where they put things. But the other issue is that no comb is perfectly straight and flat. Not even with foundation (contrary to popular belief). So when you reverse one you probably mess up the perfect bee space that they leave between not perfect surfaces of comb. My advice is to put everything exactly where you found it UNLESS you have a reason for putting it somewhere else. If you have a reason then feel free to rearrange things as you need to for your intent, such as taking a frame of brood out for another hive and putting an empty in it's place or opening the brood nest etc. You certainly can rearrange things and the world will not come to an end.

[Wyvern]

Thank you very much for your replies. I just was wondering if I put one back wrong (CRS) what would happen.

[sqkcrk]

In my opinion, turning a frame 180(?), not much. The bees will deal with it. Now, that said, if it is a frame on the outside edge of the brood nest w/ brood only on one small patch on one side, turning that 180 when temps could drop really low, could result in chilled brood.

Bees can be quite flexible and adaptive. Don't loose a lot of sleep over this. But, putting things back the way you found them is good discipline in more than comb arrangement. Like putting the toilet lid down or closing previously closed gates.
Leave it like you found it. Seems like a pretty good rule. W/in reason.