Good Idea - just not thought out.

Had a chance to look into the Prazen TBH today. They are starting on the 6th bar of perfectly straight comb. Very gentle bees. Except for the one who got to close to Ibrahim and got swatted at. I had told E not to move quickly or swat. It's hard not to, even for me. The swatting pissed off the bee and she got him. Right on the ear. I felt terrible. He seemed so interested watching me pull the combs out and look at the bees.

With my experience with cross comb last year, I had made up my mind to give them some comb guides this year. I had cut strips of wood 3/4" tall 1/8" wide and about 13" long. These strips slid perfectly into the 1/8" kerfs I had sawed into the top bars. Most fit snuggly so I didn't glue them. I hadn't figured on the weight of the comb. I assumed that the bees would glue it all together with wax when they drew their comb out. As it turns out the bees are just hanging their comb on the bottom of the strip. The 2 most drawn out (and full of brood) combs have detached the strip from the top bar They had fallen into the hive and are dangling by the ends of the strip. The weight of the comb is keeping the bar straight however I'm afraid that the comb might be soon bur combed to the sides. Not sure what to do about it at this point. Thought of tying the strips back to the top bars but I don't know.

I will certainly replace all unused top bars with top bars that have had the strip secured with wood glue or bees wax. I finely grated some wax and put the grated wax on the joint between the top bar and the strip of wood. Using a lighter I was able to melt the grated wax until it ran down the seem hopefully securing the two together.

As I had seen both eggs and capped brood, I removed the queen "includer".