As some of you may have read I wrote on 30th September how I had messed up and allowed a whole load of wild comb to be built below the brood box (where I had placed a super with only 5 frames). Upon lifting out brood frames during the following inspection, it became clear that the lower box was a mess. See my earlier post for photos. I've decided to leave it to Mother Nature but have just realised that come Spring 2010 all going well, I could carefully use a "cheese wire" technique to slice through the wild comb (below some of the brood frame bottom bars) without opening the hive and then I should be able to remove the upper brood frames for a proper inspection. Hopefully the Queen, by this stage, will have climbed into the upper box and I'll find her. I will then transfer the brood frames into a spare hive which I can return to the original location. As far as I can anticipate, the problem will be if the Queen makes a run for it and stays down below in amongst the wild comb which will now be fairly structureless.
The number of bees will be far less so that should help. I guess I could wait for three days and try to spot new eggs in the spare hive now with the transfered brood frames. What if there are no eggs?
If the remaining part of the original hive were tidy I could shake out any bees but the lower part will be mainly wax without honey or stores I would expect. Are there other techniques to try? Are there other pitfalls that I could trip into that I haven't foreseen yet? (I mean in relation to this problem!)
I welcome your thoughts and aplogise if my writing is confusing. Anyway, sure isn't it good to keep the old beekeeping part of the brain ticking over during these colder days? Hope you're all keeping busy :)
