[Logan]

I've decided to go to foundationless Langstroth hives. I have two that I'm running that way and I was thinking of moving my last holdout -- the remaining KTBH -- into a foundationless Lang box so that everything can move around, make splits, etc. The KTBH is about 18 months old and relatively strong, but it is no where near bee tight and I've had troubles with robbing. I've employed various techniques to deter the robbing but I find myself wishing they were in a Lang box that was bee tight and I could just reduce their entrance.

How hard is it, really, to cut out the frames and move them to a Lang hive? They have about 28 frames or so drawn fully out. Most is at least a year old, so hardened wax and not the new squishy stuff. Is this worth it, or should I just move the thing to where it can be away from the rest of my hives when it gets robbed (as it will invariably happen due to the warped, less than bee tight, construction).

Thoughts? If I do cut out, what is the best (easiest for me) way to do it?

I really appreciate the advice. I'm trying to look closely at what I'm doing before I leap in and start cutting wax.

 

[raosmun]

I did something similar this spring, except my KTBH starved and got robbed. So no bees to contend with and my bars were 19" long. I wanted to try a long medium LANG. instead, were I had good stright comb, just trimed off the bottom and put in the Lang. Most of the comb was cross combed (very poor bar design on my part). For the remaining comb, rubber-banded in foundationless frames and have been using in bait hives and giving a few to captured swarms. This may not be of much help, but I do not plain to fool arround with another KTBH.

 

[Logan]

My bars are about 17.5 inches long, so they won't fit in a Lang. This was one of my early hives (I tried Warre hives as well), and I just put it together and installed a package of bees. I didn't think I'd ever use a Lang, but I tried foundationless Lang after reading online and I loved it. Now I regret not sizing the bars so they match.

I can leave it alone and move it away from the other hives, or do a cutout. :s

 

[alpha6]

Get some lang frames with no foundation. Cut out each bar comb to fit into the lang frames. Wire or rubberband it in. In a while they will fill out any spaces in the frames, adhere them to the frame so you can remove the rubberbands if you want too. The bees will work them really well...it's the same technique as removing comb from a cut out.