> > As you separate the boxes, one at a time, you can scrape the top bars
and bottom bars and set the hive back up.

> Oh...you use the ladder to set it back up?

No, I usually preferred stacking the boxes back up.  A ladder or the
ladder-like frame (or piece of plywood) *can* be used to set a hive up, but
usually there is some re-arranging to be done, and boxes to be taken away
and added, moreover the boxes being added are lighter than those being
taken.

The specific problem being solved was to how deal with a badly glued-up
hive without the beekeeper killing a lot of bees -- or -- a lot of bees
killing the beekeeper.

By lying the hive over backwards, the bottom brood box or
another box can quickly be put in place on the original stand to catch the
returning bees, and then the other boxes stacked back on it as quickly or
slowly as desired.  Most bees which are disturbed by the work and which fly
up will return to the stand and not bother the beekeeper in his work.  Nor
will they be disturbed again, since they are then in the part of the hive
on which work is completed.

This system does not work as well when upper entrances are used, since
returning bees are looking for an opening in something tall and white.  The
beekeeper is the closest nearby approximation when the hive is lying down.

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