Someday I may know what I'm doing

A couple of days ago I thought I should treat the hives with powdered sugar.  As you recall, this is part of controlling the Varroa mites.  I got my sifter and powdered sugar and sticky boards, donned my bee suit and went to work.  I also removed the top feeders.  In each hive, I placed the sticky board beneath the screen, took off lids and any supers to expose the tops of the brood boxes and sifted in the powdered sugar, a couple of tablespoons per box.  A couple of hours later, I took out the sticky boards to check for results.  There was hardly any sugar and no mites.  What was happening?  I checked one source.  So, I didn't use nearly enough sugar and I checked the boards too soon.  Obviously I had forgotten how I had done it in the past.  Oh well, live and learn. In a couple of weeks I'll do it again.
I just bought Top-Bar Beekeeping by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell.  Today I read the emphasis he puts on the need to manage the combs to prevent cross-combing.  This makes it very difficult for both the beekeeper and the bees to harvest the honey.  He says that after putting a package into an empty box, one should check every couple of days to manipulated the bars so that they are straight and not cross-connected.  Oops, I'm several weeks too late.  So I went out today to see what I could do.  I took out the back board and the last two, empty bars without a hitch.  the next bar had a nub of comb, no problem.  The next was stuck on the glass; I had dealt with that before and cut it away easily.  That was the last easy.  When I pulled that bar away, I, too late, discovered that there was cross-combing and the comb was pulled free, falling to the floor of the hive spilling nearly ripe honey all over.  The bees were getting a little upset.  I lit the smoker, gave them a whiff and went into the house for a bowl.  I removed and moved bars so I could fish out the broken comb.  I went back into the house for tongs.  Fished out the comb.  Then I moved and replaced the 6 bars trying to follow Les Crowder's method.

I hope everything works out.  At least we got some honey and comb.