[OhioBee]

First of all, my bad. I didn't have ten frames, only nine in a ten frame box. Of course, they built comb right between frames. I was going to take it out and put in the tenth frame, but holy smokes, there is lots of brood in that comb, and it's a BIG MESS. I started to remove it and stopped. I thought maybe instead I should just leave it be. I feel terribly for causing so much trauma to the hive, and I certainly understand the danger of the comb falling later on top of the queen, etc., but it's just beyond me what to do with it at this point. Any suggestions? This is the lower deep. Thanks.

 

[tomkat]

I know how you feel but I would remove it. Then push your frames tight and centered, get some more frames. Ohio here too.

 

[skosma]

You could rubber band the loose brood into a frame and put it between to drawn frames.. The bees will attach it to the frame, chew the rubber band off, and you will save some brood. I made the same mistake and it worked for me.

 

[tomkat]

I agree this is how I secure brood from cut out to frames.

 

[Lookoutboss]

If you allow the ladies to draw out 10 frames in a 10 frame box (any depth) you can then remove one frame and equally space the remaining 9 frames in the 10 frame box. The ladies will, over a period of time, extend the cells to provide appropriate bee space between frames. This makes it easier to remove the caps on honey suppers for extracting. The 9 frame spacing also makes it less likely that you will roll bees, especially the queen as you inspect the hive. The two important things are that all 10 frames be drawn out before removing the 1 frame leaving a 9 frame arrangement and that the remaining 9 frames be EVENLY spaced. Kelley and other bee supply stores have tools to assist in obtaining this even 9 frame spacing in a 10 frame box.

 

[sqkcrk]

That isn't all that much. I thought you meant equal to a frame. Bite the bullet and get it out of there. Do it quickly and it won't hurt that much. Mind over matter. If you don't think about it and just do it it won't matter. Bees are flexible and the colony won't even notice it's gone. Get that last frame in there while there is still time for them to draw it out.

 

[rweakley]

If you allow the ladies to draw out 10 frames in a 10 frame box (any depth) you can then remove one frame and equally space the remaining 9 frames in the 10 frame box. The ladies will, over a period of time, extend the cells to provide appropriate bee space between frames. This makes it easier to remove the caps on honey suppers for extracting. The 9 frame spacing also makes it less likely that you will roll bees, especially the queen as you inspect the hive. The two important things are that all 10 frames be drawn out before removing the 1 frame leaving a 9 frame arrangement and that the remaining 9 frames be EVENLY spaced. Kelley and other bee supply stores have tools to assist in obtaining this even 9 frame spacing in a 10 frame box.

I maybe crazy.... Ok I am crazy, but the whole 9 frames in a 10 frame box really only makes sense in the honey super, NOT in the brood box. The best way to avoid rolling the queen when doing an inspection is to start by loosening up frame 1 or 10 and removing it. If you have smoked them you shouldn't have too many bees between those frames and have a huge rolling event. Now the reason for removing 1 or 10 is that generally the chances of the queen being on those 2 frames is VERY small. Then you have room to work and can separate the frames as you go. The 2nd way to avoid killing your queen during an inspection is to NOT look for her every time. What I mean by this is that unless you have a good reason for finding the queen (making a queenright split, or requeening, or whatever), then all you need to do is see a good pattern of eggs (She was there in last 3 days) and then shut the box up and move on to the next one.

 

[OhioBee]

Thanks for everyone's pointers on this. I opened hive two days ago, removed frame 10 so I could start making room to reach in and remove comb. Oddly enough, I saw the queen right away, on frame 9. I simply slid that over to frame 10 to keep her save and then pulled out other frames so I could access comb in middle. I removed comb, placed in empty frame with rubber bands, and returned all frames back into hive, and closed it all up. It wasn't as bad as I thought, just as some of you said, especially since I had spotted the queen so early in the process.

However, it does raise some "spacing" questions for me, and maybe I should address on another thread, but basically, I have seen various ideas mentioned on spacing:
1) Removed one frame (after comb built up) and have one less than box size, then evenly space
2) Slide all frames to one side and leave gap on other side
3) slide all together and leave two gaps, one on each wall of hive.

I did number 2 for now. I still have several empty frames. Thoughts?

 

[Harley Craig]

You will end up with a huge mess of burr comb in that empty space you need 10 frames centered in the brood box and even better is to shave them down and put 11 in

 

[sqkcrk]

Well I don't know if that is so. Especially for beginners. Not all beekeepers agree.