Harvesting brood frames?

[acepestdetective]

 Hi all.

 I started bee keeping this year and to top off all the floods we've been having here in the Britain at the moment my small colony decided to up sticks the last couple of days!

 I'm left with maybe a couple of hundred bees (seemingly queenless) most of which are drones and 3-4 frames of empty cells, nectar and capped honey.

 Am intending to brush the bees off and cut the caps off to extract what little honey there is and was just wondering if you've got any tips with regards to removing the pretty much defunct bees from the frames?

 Really dissapointed that after a fair amount of work things have turned out like this but that's the nature of the beast and at least I've learnt a fair bit this summer. Here's hoping for some nice weather next year!

 Hope you're all having more luck than us here in the UK with your weather, pollen etc.

 Rob.

[Cindi]

Rob, I am guessing that your bees swarmed.  Why don't you hang on and let the queens that are probably in your colony hatch and the colony will continue on?  It sounds like you have given up hope for this year.  Don't give up hope.   There is still a chance that your bees will build up to come through the winter.  Give it a try.  Or don't.  Not telling you what to do, but never give up hope.  Have a great day, good luck.  Cindi

[acepestdetective]

 Thanks Cindi.

 Yeah you're right, the girls have swarmed and due to the fact that I either had a queenless colony or an old queen that wasn't laying I'm left with no brood or queen cells!

 There's so few bees It wouldn't warrant requeening as far as I can see and due to the truly rank weather here which is forecast for the next 2-3 weeks at least the ability to forage has been virtually nil hence me virtually giving up.

 Not nice to give up on the bees but think I'd be better off starting a fresh next season.

 Rob.

[Jerrymac]

I am guessing you are saying there are dead bees in the cells? One option is to freeze what you have and then next year thaw it out and put your new bees on these combs. That will give them a head start next year.

You could just cut out the comb with honey and do the crush and strain method.