My dd had the keen eye to first spot this troublesome fact, as she looked into the bottom of the super before we even began. I had stupidly wondered why we still had so many bees in residence when our escape board had worked so well on the other hive!
Well, I thought, maybe there will only be a tiny bit of brood. We'll just cut that part out and move on.
Easier thought than done. Especially considering this was a super I had place on the hive before realizing I had not finished an important job that must be done when using foundationless frames. I had not turned the wedges to provide a guide for the bees, and they had drawn comb in an intestinal pattern turning every which way throughout the super.
This was the messiest, most time consuming extraction I never hope to do again, resulting in the death of many bees and many bees-to-be. I had nightmares about it afterward. Dh couldn't even sleep after that, the poor man.
From now on, that particular hive gets the benefit of a queen excluder as soon as wax is being drawn on the frame GUIDES that I will never forget again when building frames for foundationless use.
I think we probably ended up with only 15 to 20 lbs. of usable honey and a very small amount of usable beeswax, since much of the capped honey was backed by uncapped nectar and/or brood, which had to be removed.
