Bailey Comb Exchange

[HeatherP]

I am using this method to transfer a colony of bees from a commercial to a national hive. There is drone brood in the bottom box (commercial) which will emerge when the Bailey Board is in place once the foundation has been drawn in the top box (national) and the queen has been moved upstairs. I thought of using a wedge to make a gap between the bottom box and Bailey Board to let the drones out. But can you please tell me what time of day is best to do this and how long do I need to leave the space open for them?

Thanks.

[Alfred]

I'd cut a notch from the rin and put a snelgrove style door in.
Drones don't really have an an itinerary like a worker bee.

[AdamD]

Drones will be OK for a few days stuck in the lowerbox. Once he queen is upstairs with the new brood, you could put both on a floor with an open entrance. I usually have the following arrangement from bottom to top:-

floor with closed entrance
old brood box without the queen
queen xcluder
eke with entrance
brood box with the queen
crown board
feeder surrounded by super
roof

with the above arrangement, bees will generally move food up to join the queen and new brood so once the old brod has emerged, there's little food left in the old frames.

A note about the queen and a bailey comb exchange which is not often mentioned - if she is plonked in the top brood box and there is no brood, the workers can abondon her on a cold night and she might die. Bees will not abandon brood however.