Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[kathcor]

I need to know how to reattach comb to top bar after removing the comb because of cross-combing. The comb appears to be straight, but crossing the bars. I was thinking of approaching them from the opposite side of the hive, cutting the comb off and reattaching them to an empty bar and replacing them in the order they are in. I just need to know how to keep the comb up on the bar until the bees can reattach to bar. Any help is very much appreciated! Sooner, rather than later.

Oh, and one of the combs is attached to the leader board.

[Dexter's shed]

get yourself a few of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lady-Spring-Loaded-18-Tooth-Plastic-Hairclip-Barrette-Claw-Light-Purple-/111064521606?pt=UK_Hair_Accessories&hash=item19dbf61b86

drill some small holes in your top bars and then secure these loosly underneath with plastic ties, simply place the comb in the jaws of the clip and press shut, the teeth bed into the comb, then tighten the plastic ties, they will stay in the comb forever, but the bees just build around them

[AugustC]

Firstly have someone to help
A second pair of hands is essential and the bees are going to get more than a little upset with you.
I am pretty sure you're going to want to shake all the bees off before you start. Then there are lots of ways of attaching. Some easier than other with new comb.

The easiest I think is to use hair grips attached to a bar using wire or cable ties. You can have these ready-to-go so it is cut and transfer.

Some people use "wire-hooks" on the topbar and hook the comb on. I think this might not work with fresh white comb as it is quite fragile.

I have reattached broken comb using a masking tape "girdle" this works really well as the bees just chew it off when they are done needing it. I can see this would be a real pain though for multiple combs.

If you are going with reattaching hair grip is probably your best option

[madasafish]

I find rubber bands work perfectly...

[trekmate]

[Amber]

Thanks for the tip Trekmate, I used your friend's version of the rescue bars (with just a slight modification) on broken comb today and it worked perfectly. Such a simple idea. I used strong cage wire from B+Q rather than rabbit cage wire as I couldn't find a UK supplier who sold small quantities.

Can anyone tell me how to upload images?

Amber

[Dexter's shed]

open a photobucket account, post your pictures there, then copy and paste the url to here

[Amber]

Thanks Dexter.

[Amber]

Here's the Photobucket link (I hope) to 2 images of the rescue bars. The second one shows how the bars fit snugly because the support wire fits into the sawn kerf.

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://s100.photobucket.com/user/bees5/embed/slideshow/"></iframe>

[Amber]

Second try - expected to use the html save not the email one:

http://s100.photobucket.com/user/bees5/library/Rescue%20Bars

[Dexter's shed]

well done

[johno]

Hi Amber.

I suppose this post is too late to help you with your urgent problem, but it might be worth considering if your hive is still in bad shape. I recently split a hive and moved cut comb from frames to top bars. I came up with a system for attaching the comb that I haven't seen used anywhere else, but in my opinion it is well worth considering. I did a quick inspection today and I am extremely happy with the results. All 4 top bars had well attached comb, which tells me that the hooks held the comb securely while the bees worked on it. One of the hooks I used fell out during the inspection, with minimal damage to any cells. This demonstrated to me that it is easy to remove the hooks after the comb is fully secured.

I posted a preamble outlining the plan before I attempted the transplant. You can find that post here.

I took some photos during the procedure and wrote up a summary of how it went. You can find the description of my method in this thread.

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my phone to take more pictures during the inspection today. I'll be checking them again in about 12-14 days, and I'll be sure to write a followup report after that.

best of luck

[MikeRobinson]

One thing to watch out for is that the hive should be perfectly level in both dimensions.