broken frame "cleanup" question

[silverleaf]

The top tab on one of my deep frames broke. Should be fixable. BUT - I'm wondering if I went about "cleaning it up" the right way:

• I did wait for all the brood to hatch before removing it (it was on a hive that swarmed, so there was a gap in egg production which made this possible).
• There was very little honey in it - but lots of pollen and also that jelly-like substance (what exactly is that - is it nectar?).

I didn't want that pollen and other stuff to go to waste so I took the frame and laid it next to the hive thinking the bees would forage on it a bit and clean it up, at which point I'd take it away and fix it. Which they've been doing, but they're kinda hanging out on it a bit more than I thought. This morning in fact it was literally covered in bees, before the bees had even begun to forage for the day. So it was like they stayed there (outside the hive!) overnight.

Did I just screw up and trick the bees into thinking part of their hive was "outside" the hive? Should I just take the frame away and not worry about the pollen going to waste?

[westernbeekeeper]

If it has any brood in the comb at all, the bees seem to have a hard time leaving it alone.

[Double D]

Silverleaf,
How long ago was that swarm and are you sure the new queen isn't laying. I wouldn't consider nectar to be "jelly-like". Young larva in royal jelly might look like you describe. The fact that you say the bees haven't left the frame and have "covered" it make me think it may contain some brood. As far as removing the frame for repair, after making sure it was free of brood, I would just remove it form the area and fix it. If it were a complete frame of pollen I would cut it out and rubber band it into a new frame, short of that I wouldn't worry about it going to waste...DD

[danno]

by top tab are you talking about one of the ears? If you are it can be fixed with bee's, brood and honey with a frame fixer and 4 little nails. I have even done temp fix jobs with a drywall screw screwed half way in.

[silverleaf]

by top tab are you talking about one of the ears? If you are it can be fixed with bee's, brood and honey with a frame fixer and 4 little nails. I have even done temp fix jobs with a drywall screw screwed half way in.

Not sure what you mean by "ears" but I think we're talking about the same thing. It's the part on the top that holds all the weight of the frame - there's one on each side that set in the notch of the box, allowing the frame to hang down. I don't have a frame fixer but will get one pronto!

[silverleaf]

Silverleaf,
How long ago was that swarm and are you sure the new queen isn't laying. I wouldn't consider nectar to be "jelly-like". Young larva in royal jelly might look like you describe. The fact that you say the bees haven't left the frame and have "covered" it make me think it may contain some brood.

The swarm was a week & a half ago. I requeened last Friday. I'm admittedly poor at spotting eggs but I'm fairly certain there were none in this one - the new queen is either dead or hasn't started laying yet (I have another thread on that question here.)

Maybe "jelly" isn't the right word. I'm new at this and don't entirely know what's what. Could it actually be honey in there? It was shiny, and was intermixed with the cells with pollen. I don't have a pic of my own, but it looked a lot like this picture here. I was assuming it wasn't honey because I thought honey would only be around the top & outside of the frame, and never mixed in with pollen. Is that assumption wrong?

[danno]

Not sure what you mean by "ears" but I think we're talking about the same thing. It's the part on the top that holds all the weight of the frame - there's one on each side that set in the notch of the box, allowing the frame to hang down. I don't have a frame fixer but will get one pronto!

we are talking about the same thing. heres a link to dadants frame fixer for 24 cents each http://www.dadant.com/catalog/advanc...cf56d6&x=6&y=8