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An older friend gave me a hive this week, he had purchased the hive to pollinate his garden and its now 8 yrs old and has some problems. The hive is made up of a full depth brood box and two medium supers. I opened the hive to check it and theres a good bit of foul comb from the bottom of the frames in the brood box that attach to the hive bottom board. The wood frames have been in there a long time and its very hard to remove them without pulling them apart.
The bottom board itself has a lot of decay in it and needs to be replaced, but Im thinking it would pull the frames apart to try and remove the bottom board. Just from looking inside the brood box the bees seem very healthy and theres a lot of bees and honey in this hive. Its never had any honey removed from it; never been treated for anything and never been re-queened. I dont want to try much this time of year but I would like to know what would be the best way to restore this mess into a nice workable hive again without destroying it in the process?
Any helpful advice appreciated
The bottom board itself has a lot of decay in it and needs to be replaced, but Im thinking it would pull the frames apart to try and remove the bottom board. Just from looking inside the brood box the bees seem very healthy and theres a lot of bees and honey in this hive. Its never had any honey removed from it; never been treated for anything and never been re-queened. I dont want to try much this time of year but I would like to know what would be the best way to restore this mess into a nice workable hive again without destroying it in the process?
Any helpful advice appreciated