[Adam Foster Collins]

In the interest of transferring a Lang to a TBH, I've read that putting in Lang frames upside down causes bees to abandon the frames once brood hatches and move to new comb.

True of False in your experience or estimation?

Thanks for your help,

Adam

 

[mrspock]

In the interest of transferring a Lang to a TBH, I've read that putting in Lang frames upside down causes bees to abandon the frames one brood hatches and move to new comb.

True of False in your experience or estimation?

Thanks for your help,

Adam

-Deleted- I misread the post.

 

[mike haney]

turned a box upside down by mistake once, and 3 weeks later it was empty. good luck,mike

 

[BigDru]

I tried this once. It took nearly a month for the frame to be cleaned out. That included all the honey and pollen stores along the tops of the frames. Once cleaned out and the brood hatched, the bees just left the frames alone.

 

[Robee]

Hmmmm, still trying to figure out how to put the frame in upside down. I tried this and the frame stuck up out of the box about 9 inches. I couldn't put the cover on. :doh:
Just kidding, but I am wondering how do you accomplish this?
Robee

 

[Bens-Bees]

Just kidding, but I am wondering how do you accomplish this?

My only thought would be to put a new bottom board onto the box you want to clear, only put it on upside down, then flip them over and stack the rest on top, right-side up... but the frames would still shift quite a bit, so that's a good question.

 

[Ben Brewcat]

Put the inverted frame on the box below (right on the top bar of the corresponding frame below), and then carefully thread that frame's box down over it and into place?

 

[Countryboy]

Why not just flip the whole box upside down, and lay that upside down box over the frames of the TBH? Just leave out a few bars on your TBH under the Langstroth box so the bees can move down.

If I was going to transfer bees from a Langstroth to a TBH, I would just tie TBH bars into empty Langstroth frames, and then put a couple of those into the Langstroth brood box. The bees will start drawing combs on those frames. Once the queen lays some brood in the new combs, remove the TBH bars from the Langstroth frames, and put the TBH bars into the TBH. Make sure the queen is in the TBH with the new combs. Leave a couple gaps between TBH bars, and lay an excluder over the TBH bars, and then set the Langstroth box on top of the TBH. As the baby bees hatch out, they will end up going down to where the queen is in the TBH. After 3 weeks, all the brood will be hatched out of the Langstroth box, and you can remove the Langstroth box, and let them rob out any honey they had stored in the Lang box.

A swarm would be much easier. Now that I think about it, if I wanted to transfer bees from a Lang to a TBH, I would reduce the Lang hive to a single box with a hive top feeder on it. I would feed the snot out of the bees to get them to swarm. Catch the swarm and put them in the TBH.

 

[bigevilgrape]

there is always this method: http://vimeo.com/5614348

 

[BGhoney]

I have done cut outs and tied the frames in upside down. It worked, after a few weeks all the brood hatched out and they cleaned out the stores, move over onto the good frames. Never tried it with a good frame.

 

[dcross]

Had a swarm set up in two shallows last summer, no frames in the top box and no inner cover under the telescoping cover.

They made it through winter so I just flipped the whole works on the hive stand, removed the bottom board and added a box of comb to the top of the stack, then an inner cover with an entrance. Seem to be setting up in the top box, going to give them another two weeks or so before removing the bottom two.

 

[raosmun]

This "upside down" frame thing is very interesting. I want to go to all mediums, this looks to be a quicker method than rotating medium through the deeps, BUT does this really work:scratch:

 

[DRUR]

I've read that putting in Lang frames upside down causes bees to abandon the frames once brood hatches and move to new comb. True of False in your experience or estimation?

False, or rather it didn't work for me. The queen didn't lay in them [but I had transferred my frames to the outside or end] but they did not clean out the honey/pollen.

Put the inverted frame on the box below (right on the top bar of the corresponding frame below), and then carefully thread that frame's box down over it and into place?

This is what I did. I might add that I put mine as an outside frame [as opposed to the middle of the box] since the queen is less likely to lay in the frames on the outside of the boxes.

I want to go to all mediums, this looks to be a quicker method than rotating medium through the deeps

I was converting from deeps to mediums and from large cell to small cell. What worked best was just moving the frames to the outside on the ends. Then, when they contained no brood or eggs I pulled them and set them outside for any and all to rob. Probably not the healthy avenue to take as if you have a pathogen in that one coloney you could spread it to others, but it eventually worked for me.

Why not just flip the whole box upside down,

Seems like this might work just as well as one frame at a time, but when I did mine I needed time to allow mine to also draw out wax on small cell frames.

BUT does this really work:scratch:

My queens didn't lay in them but they didn't clean out the honey and pollen.

Danny Unger

 

[dcross]

Went through mine, queen was still laying in the upside down comb after 3 weeks. A little nectar was stored in the right side up box, otherwise they were hanging tight.

 

[JohnBeeMan]

I am 1 week into effort. I have to wait until at least all brood has hatched in inverted box. I will then go through inverted frames to check on goings-on. Hopefully this will prevent a semi-cut out process.

 

[Michael Bush]

Well, flipping the brood box upside down was a common method of swarm control back in the 1880s and 1890s so apparently they didn't notice the queen not laying in them...