Not sure how to manage these hives, photos included

[TheFuzz]

I inspected my beehives yesterday. It's two weeks from spring here in Australia, but gauging by the warm weather I think it's basically already here. I wasn't sure what to do with the hives so I took some photos:

https://imgur.com/a/RYHWEGa

I didn't lift any frames because since they're all attached with comb , it would have caused a good amount of disruption and damage, but maybe this was a mistake?

The bottom of the frames are having comb joining them to the top of the frames in the super below, because the frames that are in these hives have no bottom bar. Should I be aiming to replace these crappy frames with frames that have bottoms in the future?

Do I need to pull off frames in the brood chamber, even though it'll seriously annoy the bees, to check if the queen has laying space?

I feel rather unsure about these basic fundamentals of managing a beehive. I just opened up these hives yesterday and wasn't sure what I should be doing with them.

[tecumseh]

a big mess there!

what follows is what I would do and is a means to make manipulation easier as your season progresses.

take a plastic tub and with the sharp end of your hive tool scrape off the burr comb < you could toss this on the ground but this can lead to problems (robbing) and a mess later. Normally I do this one box at a time by trig the box up on it front or back (and using the sharp end of the hive tool) remove burr comb from the top and bottom bars. This is generally a spring time activity and this burr comb may be more important in the winter time to allow bees to move between boxes although invariable you will squash a lot of bees if you leave the burr comb intact.   

It appears some bottom bars have separated and you will need to remove and either repair or replace those...< this separation is generally a sign that the nails used to attach the bottom bars are too short (a good glue will also limit this kind of problem).

It also appears at least some of the boxes are short frames and this is a good time to clean up any excess comb (either between frames or attached to the walls of the box) and to add new frames of foundation.  This is the proper time to get combs drawn.  As a rule I never have less than 9 frames in a ten frame box.

Good luck...

[TheFuzz]

Thanks for the advice I appreciate it.

I wondered if the gap between the bottom of a frame, and the top of the frame that is sitting in the box underneath, is larger than a bee space. I did some awkward measurements and to be shock it seems there's about 1.9 cm gap between the frame above and below each other, about 3/4 of an inch.

To ask the obvious; is this then why the bees join the frames together, and whenever I lift a super comb splits apart?

[iddee]

Yes, they will draw comb in a 3/4 inch space.

[Newbee]

Yessir, you've got your hands full there. How did it come out? If you haven't yet, maybe try doing it to half of the hive at a time, or just the top hive body. Then give the hive a week or two to recover, then do the other half?
Keep us posted on how things go?
Thanks.

- Kevin

[tecumseh]

what iddee said about bee space.  even when the spacing is correct left unattended thru early spring you will get some degree of this burr comb between boxes.  this is also a place where drone brood when be plentiful and if you are subject to varroa (which in Australia I would think not) this is a good place to get a visual clue about the extent of varroa infestation < they show up very well on the white bodies of drone pupae.