Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: OhMyBees on June 10, 2021, 05:01:23 pm
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Hi y'all!
I think while inspecting my hive, I put brood frames back into the bottom brood box in the wrong order. What might happen if I did that? Should I go out and inspect today after having inspected just yesterday and check? I have this lingering anxiety that i've just doomed my hive! I worry I put a frame that was in the middle near the outside.
Also - I have a 2nd brood box that the hive has started to fill out with nectar. However, there is one frame down the the deep brood box that has remained totally untouched. The bees have built out nearly all of the other frames in the deep brood box, and comb has been built on nearly all frames in the 2nd broood box. But that one frame on the bottom just has nothing. Should I do anything?
Thanks for the help!
-A new beekeeper
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Don't worry about the misplaced frame. I switch frames all the time for many different reasons. The bees will adjust them the way they want.
As for the untouched frame, If it is plastic, duraguilt, or other non-wax foundation, I would replace it with another frame. If it is all wax or starter strip, I would move it toward the center of the box and if not being drawn in a week, I would replace it.
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I agree with iddee, this is absolutely nothing to panic about. Generally it is better to replace the frames in the right order, just because the bees know where they have put everything and it's less disruptive, but I also move frames to different locations for different reasons throughout the season. If they really hate where you put it, they will just rearrange.
Sometimes bees will draw frames in a strange order, I'd just give them a little more time, or if you really want it drawn, move it to the middle like iddee said.
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I agree with iddee,
Same here....
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I use my queen marking pens to write the year on one end of the frame, that way the frame ends are in the same order. Its good to know how old the frames are so you can cull them out.
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X3
I try to keep them in order but quite often I move one or two to the middle to get them to draw out a frame. Or I might gut move a frame up to get the bees to empty it out so that I can remove it.
Jim Altmiller
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It's a good idea to keep the frames in order if you can. Having the frames out of order will create extra work for the bees if they need to re-arrange them.
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Years ago I put a hive from a small Langstroth box into my observation hive. While doing it, the observation hive was laying down flat on one side. When I put it in the house I realized one of the honey frames was totally up against the glass on the side that was down. It took the bees 2 full days to to cut the honey back to give themselves bee space. The amazing thing was that when they were done, it looked like the wax was cut with a laser. Perfectly flat all the way across the comb. When you change the order of the frames, you end up with too little bee space and too much bee space that the bees have to fix.
Jim Altmiller
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If moving frames at this time of year hurt the bees there would be a lot of dead hives around. You have to do a much more serious mistake then frame order to make a life threating event.
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Because comb is sometimes irregular in depth it's best to put them back where you got them. But it's not the end of the world if you don't, as long as you don't have comb up against comb. This kind of thing leads to small hive beetle larvae...