Author Topic: Difficulty opening stuck beeboxs  (Read 1337 times)

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Offline TheFuzz

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Difficulty opening stuck beeboxs
« on: June 15, 2020, 06:07:22 pm »
I'm having difficulty opening my bee boxs, particularly the lower I go in my hives the harder it is to open them. I literally snapped a hive tool into two parts trying to open one hive, I have also damaged my brood chamber box trying to open another box, it's not splitting apart as can be seen in these photos:

https://postimg.cc/gallery/vnwXjzb

It's been taking me forty minutes of struggle to open up a single bee box to examine what's going on.It's physically demanding and it's breaking my equipment trying. The paint and wood peels and breaks off when I try to open a box by lifting it with a hive tool. I have learned when trying that the frames from one box, are stuck to the frames underneath. When I try to use my force to open a box, the bees get very angry with me and it makes it then difficult to actually examine it because they become very hostile. I've realised that it can be easier to lift the frames above, to break off the attachment to the frames in the box below, to make it lift. I attempted to do this in the photo shown but instead of the frames lifting, the wood just splits and breaks, it's easier for the wood of the frame to get damaged then it is to be unstuck and lift.

I recognise there's a lot of honey comb on top of that hive. It needed a hivemat to prevent it. I haven't removed it yet because I haven't gotten myself set up to process that honey so I'm leaving it there for now until I start crushing and straining my bits of honey comb that I have.

I'm unsure how to go about opening up this hive considering the various different methods I've used has broken my hive tools, my frames and my boxs. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Offline iddee

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Re: Difficulty opening stuck beeboxs
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2020, 08:23:38 pm »
You need to replace your boxes. They are too short. The frames should stop 8 MM above the frames on the box below. It is called bee space. Without it, the bees glue the frames together. If you have this space, the boxes will open properly.
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Difficulty opening stuck beeboxs
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2020, 08:24:50 pm »
They are building comb in that area, it means you have too much space. Reduce the amount if space to 3/8 of an inch, and they wont fill it with comb. They will always propolis the cracks shut, but breaking the propolis free is a lot easier than popping that comb in half!

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Offline Zweefer

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Re: Difficulty opening stuck beeboxs
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2020, 01:04:32 am »
I’ll chime in as well... it may be the frames... do you purchase from multiple vendors, or make your own? There are subtle differences that can cause one box to the other to be out of bee space tolerance...


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