[OhLaLa]

I've had all winter to ponder this one, but due to this being so unusual, I thought I'd throw it out there to other experienced beekeepers and see what additional ideas come back:
 
I have been given a colony in a home made (all home made sized to, so nothing is interchangeable) hive. It is nailed together to within an inch of it's life - including frames into brood box, and brood box onto floor. Wood also crisscrossed through all frames in 'X' shape (see below as to how I know). No wired frames.
 
The colony was in decline but I now have a healthy colony in there which is on the up, but I need to get them out and onto fresh comb and into a brood box I can work with. They have been in there at least 5 / 7 years (abandoned hive).
 
I was given two of these hives, the other colony died before I got it, but having taken that one apart I have an idea of what to expect inside this surviving one.
 
I'm an experienced beekeeper, have plenty of kit, so, before the colony gets too large.......... how best to proceed?
 

[P6te]

Hi OhLaLa,

Without a photograph its a bit difficult to be too precise but I would be inclined to remove the roof and I assume crown board ... or if necessary improvise and put a national (or whatever is your standard of hive) on top with a hole in (approx 3" diameter) to provide a passageway up .... something like a floor board with a hole cut in it. On top of that place your new brood box, crown board etc. Block up the entrance they were using forcing them to come up and use the new entrance via your modified floor.  It won't be long until the queen will be found laying in the top box. When you know she is there, place a queen excluder over the hole in the floor to prevent her going down again. By this time the bees will be well accustomed to using the new entrance but you could open us a small entrance below to clear any remaining drones which will otherwise (some will anyway) get stuck in the queen excluder.   Then leave the hive at least 21 days for all workers to hatch (or 24 days for drones). 

After a week or 2 when there are no drones below place a clearer board (modified if necessary) to clear the old hive. If they have the space (above) the chances are any remaining store will have been taken upstairs. When clear remove the old hive and you will be left with your colony in the new hive.

Hope this helps

Pete

[OhLaLa]

Genius.
 
I'll give that a try. Will have to make the board between the brood boxes as need to adapt between sizes. The new doorway will be about 14 / 16" higher than current doorway.
 
Don't want to complicate with the odd construction of this hive, but it has three front doors and two side by side brood chambers, they never had a crown board when they arrived (it had very rotted cotton cloth, so they were in both sides). I can see the broodbox is divided into 2 (the third doorway is a mystery and implies a 3rd broodbox but I can't see where - or why -  unless it's underneath the two I can see). So I'll probably have to cut two holes in the new board.
 
 

[P6te]

Hi,

I'd be interested to see a photograph!!

Just one thought, you are sure it is just one colony and not 2 (or 3) with 2 (or 3) queens?

Pete

[OhLaLa]

I won't know for sure what is going on in there until I can get into it. Will update in due course.
 

[Plantoid]

Nature sorted one such hive I had like that ..
 I purchased six  hives as the 86 yr old was " giving it up " .
They were made out of old lard boxes in 1938 by the guys father , white washed every year and left to superceed naturally for many years , always left with a full super of honey  to see the bees through bad weather .
 
Alison & I  had fun screwing on loads and loads of strips of thin ply with the battery drills all over the hives to keep them fitted together , ready for lifting "  jungle style " on a 10 foot ally scaffold pole with a pair of ratchet straps to tie them to the pole
come 2100 ish .all hives safely in place on the trailer  and a swarm found hanging on some low level hawthorn bushes  securely  tied in a light quilt case placed  over a pig wire drum form in the back of the estate car . We got back home around midnight .
 One of  the bloody things fell to bits as I moved it off my trailerin the dark . It didn't take long to sort it initially .
It was a case of find the queen  by torch light , slip her onto a full set of new unused drawn comb  in a brood box set on a floor ,  and lay the old frames out on a cloth that had a walk board into the new hive . Lots of the  bees soon followed the queen scent .
  I then put on a QE and added an empty brood box an other Qe and another empty brood box , another qe and finall another brood box .
In these empty brood boxes boxes I laid the old  frames like  letter M 's  till each was filled and then put the top of the hive together
Over the next four days k the bees had populated the main drawn comb in the bottom of the brood box and emptied quite a few of the combs above , there were oodles of new eggs  in the combs .
 I didn't find any new eggs above the Qe's so it seemed that there was only one laying queen . The sealed comb hatched .
Alvin my mentor said that quite often bees will also move less than two day old eggs down nearer  to the broodnest and put them in the comb.
 When I rebuilt the hive a few days later I put a drawn super above the first QE and a QE above that , then  put the old combs back above it as before .After a  week all the top combs were empty  so I reduced the hive  till the next examination  and added another empty super on the now almost full super .  by the end of that week the bees cleaned out all the old comb everything was hatched  and the hive was ready for the third super to be put on .
The change over was now done , the replacenment hive was as my standard set up's
 I then did similar to all the other old hives .but this time did it in day light .
 
All the old emptied combs were put in the solar wax extractor as they came off empty  , all my old wax was usually weighed in at Thornes the next time I visited.
 I burnt the old hives ,