Hi All Greg mentioned the problem with a glued super. I recently got given about 15 hives that had not been tended in 15 years. These were in the karroo - our semi desert and bees in this area make lots of propolis. I could not do very much with them, so eventually decided to get the bees to move the propolis around the hive. I removed all entrance propolis (wearing a rather thick beesuit for a change) and then prized the back of the hives apart at the join between the super and placed a little pebble in there. Within a week I came back and they had moved a huge amount of propolis from 'store;' areas - ie between frames and the side of the brood box. I was able to them manipulate the frames at midday and removed them and gave them a good scrape. I now practise a policy of removing a small amount of entrance propolis every time I open the brood nest when there is a flow. In this way the frames don't get too gummed as the bees are always moving propolis down from between them to the 'more important' entrance. It may be unwise to do this if there is no flow. An alternative that I cannot vouch for as I have not yet tried it, would be to tape the zone of connection between two hives with black duct tape and then seperate the hives when the sun shines on it - the increased warmth might help. Keep well Garth Garth Cambray Camdini Apiaries Grahamstown Apis mellifera capensis Eastern Cape Prov. South Africa Time = Honey After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P the I. may not stand for important. (rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)