> Last year I had a hive in two deeps which the bees had stuck together.
> In late summer, I told myself I would use a trick I had read about - use
> piano wire to separate the burr/bridge comb... Well - I never did.

A good trick in a case like this is to lay the hive down backwards, using a
ladder or some such support (probably wouldn't be needed in this case, since
it won't fall apart when you have it halfway down).

Then you separate the boxes a bit and can work on separating the top bars
with a hive tool (you do have a hive tool, I trust? -- screwdrivers just
don't compare). This way, gravity is not working against you, and the
returning bees won't be attacking you -- assuming you place a catch box on a
floor on the original stand.

As you separate the boxes, one at a time, you can scrape the top bars and
bottom bars and set the hive back up.  When the brood boxes are on end, the
bees will not come boiling onto the top bars the way they do when it is
upright, so scraping goes nicely using just a bit of smoke.

allen
http://www.internode.net/honeybee/diary/