Hi there. I am looking for suggestions for managing a mess I have created with my hive. I am in Ontario, Canada (fairly cool) and I have only ever had top bar hives and last year started a lang without doing enough research in advance. Bad decisions aside ... I was using foundationless frames in a deep. The hive thrived last year and quickly filled the first deep. I stayed on top of it and the comb was nice and straight. I added a second deep (first wrong decision I think) with a queen excluder but did NOT watch the comb carefully enough and they created a mess that is completely unmanageable (although quite a bit of honey). Maybe my second bad decision was deciding (given it was a first year hive) to leave them the second deep for the winter and would then take it away this spring for the honey. I haven't gone in yet as it has really been a cool spring and the bees themselves only really convinced me that had survived at all a couple weeks ago. However, I am assuming (having studied a bit more over the winter and the evidence from the hive suggests) that the bees are now residing in the top, messed up box. Unfortunately, it is really messed up. I don't see how I can go through it and find the queen without great risk.
So after too much background, suggestions on how I can get the hive down into the other deep? One suggestion was to swap them and they -might- move up? I would then keep going through that box till I find the queen. I can then put an excluder in along with a one-way bee escape to get the rest of the bees out. My next questions will involve when, given it is still cool and going below freezing at night most of this week.
I apologize for the long winded message. Suggestions appreciated.
So after too much background, suggestions on how I can get the hive down into the other deep? One suggestion was to swap them and they -might- move up? I would then keep going through that box till I find the queen. I can then put an excluder in along with a one-way bee escape to get the rest of the bees out. My next questions will involve when, given it is still cool and going below freezing at night most of this week.
I apologize for the long winded message. Suggestions appreciated.