need help removing bees from medium

[cat ferraz]

Novices here

we have two boxes. a deep with a 10 open frame medium on top. we believe the medium is all honey. we have cross combing happening in all 10 frames so we can’t remove any frame individually.

is a bee escape is the best way to deal with this situation? we were thinking we would separate all the bees into the brood box and remove the medium from the top once they settle down and cut all the cross comb out, leaving small starter strips of comb at the top of the frames.

we’ve read that bee escapes take 1 to 2 days for the bees to come out of the medium. how much danger is there if the brood box is really full? note: our deep has had 9 frames in it for the past month, after we couldn’t fit the 10th one back in then.

if the 10th frame can be-installed at the same time we place the bee escape, would that eliminate some stress for the bees?

[Rob McFarland]

Cat,

Sounds like the bee escape is the way to go if you’re sure it’s all honey and no brood. If you use the bee escape, I would recommend putting a empty box in between to make room for the bees.

Best,

Rob

[Chelsea McFarland]

Just make sure you put it on the right way =)

I think it was in the book “Plan Bee” – she told a story about how she put the bee escape on upside down… and all the bees got trapped upstairs.

That is one of the greatest things about beekeeping, you get immediate feedback when you screw up =)

[Author]

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