Welcome Guitarman. All good advice given in the above posts. As you live in Sydney, you should have some time to deal with this issue if you want to. It basically depends on where you live. If you are in western Sydney and you experience cold winter nights, follow Jim?s advice and wait until close to spring. August would be a good time to begin inspections and start taking action to correct the problem. September may be too late. If you live close to the coast, the bees will slow down a little but will keep working through the winter. They may even produce a surplus of honey if there is anything flowering through that time. If that situation occurs, you will have major problems. Pop into one of the beekeeping supply shops such as Iwoohoo if you live out near Campbeltown or Hornsby Beekeeping and ask for some advice. They will sell you a suit and smoker and offer advice as to people who maybe able to help you. You really need someone to help you with this issue if you want to reduce your chances of failure. From what you have said, it sounds like you have a lot of cross comb where the bees have formed comb that runs diagonally across a number of frames. If that is the problem, you will end up losing a bit of comb, honey and brood as you correct the issue. If you do want to correct some of this issue now and without help, I would make sure that you have a suit on, smoke the bees by putting about 3 or 4 puffs of smoke towards the entrance of the hive. Keep the smoker about a foot away from the hive as you do this. Wait about 30 seconds and open the lid of the hive. Use a hive tool, chisel or a screwdriver to lift one corner of the lid. When the lid is hinged up a couple of inches, put a couple of extra puffs of smoke across the top of the frames. Remove the lid and place it in a safe place close to the hive with the lid inverted. You should now be ready to start work. As you are new to beekeeping and this job could be messy, put on some rubber dishwashing gloves and get one of your kids to run some tape around the ends of the gloves. Using a long, thin knife, cut the comb around one outside frame only. Move slowly and carefully. Remove this frame and gently shake most of the bees back into the hive. If you have a bee brush, use it to slowly and carefully remove the majority of the bees from the comb. At this stage you will have honey dripping everywhere, bees caught up in the honey and comb all over the place. Cut some of the comb back, remove comb that is crooked and twist some comb to get it to sit straight on the frame. Have a container with a lid handy to drop the cut comb and surplus honey into. You may have to use rubber bands to keep some of the comb straight and in place. When you have done this, turn the frame through 180 degrees and pop it back into the hive. Close up the hive and walk away. Being the outside frame, there will be fewer bees on it and the queen should be in deeper towards the centre of the hive. The bees will clean up the surplus honey overnight and the frame will be clean by the next morning. Leave the bees for a week and then check your handy work. If you are happy with the outcome, you could try the outside frame on the opposite side. If you are not happy with the result, get someone into help you. Progressively attacking frames towards the centre will upset brood and also put the queen at risk. The centre of the hive could be cleaned up in spring when the bees have the opportunity to replace the queen if she is accidentally killed. Don?t try to clean up too many frames at once. Small hive beetle in your area would be an issue. You need the hive to remain strong and issues such as honey, exposed and damaged frames with diminished bee numbers is a recipe for disaster. Good luck with the project. If I were in your situation, I would get an experienced beekeeper to help with the issue. Don?t forget to register your hive with the Department of Primary Industries and follow their requests in relation to hive management and record keeping.
Cheers
Les