> There's alot of burr comb between the upper and lower
> brood chambers. I started to clean it up, but realized
> I was also destroying eggs, larvae, and brood, so I
> stopped. Managing the hive kinda requires removing the
> burr comb, yes?

Why exactly?  A lot of people believe that, but I can see you are wondering,
when you see that by proceeding you are doing harm and that the benefit is not
obvious.  Can you do what you want without removing it?

My personal philosophy is to disturb the bees as little as possible while
accomplishing my goals.  If they build things they like, and if I can do what I
need to do without removing these structures, I do so.  I see no need to impose
a human sense of order on them.  Such an attempt serves no useful purpose, and
wastes the bees time and mine too.  It sets us against one another when we
should be working together.  There are, however, ways to build hives that should
minimize such stray combs.

Most beekeepers like to have a bee space (3/16" to 3/8") between the supers and
between all other moving parts.  Usually bees will not gum up spaces that are
designed this way, so check and see if your hive is built correctly.  If not,
some time when it is convenient and not disruptive, you may want to make
alterations.

There was a good article in Bee Culture recently showing how innocently mixing
boxes and parts from different suppliers can result in violation of the bee
space principle and a gummed up hive interior.

> Shall I press on, removing that burr
> comb, and unhatched bees be damned???

Will it result in some real improvement in conditions for you or for the bees or
just keep you both busy?

allen

http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/
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