How can I batch a drop column operation? I have a BLOB column in my database schema that I no longer need. I need to drop this from my production server. I'm running MYSQL-5.6

Testing this on my development copy suggests that it will take about 1.5 hours to run. Right now, it's not feasible for us to bring the production DB down for that long for maintenance. What's the best way for me to do this in batches? e.g., I can acquire a write-lock on the table for about 5-10 mins at a time without causing any production failures.

I don't have a DB administrator background so I hope this isn't a really basic question covered elsewhere.
I think the following thread might prove useful to you: MySQL Drop Column From Large Table

The suggestion is to copy the data to a new table MINUS the column you wish to lose, then drop the old table and rename the new one.  This is if you can't secure a maintenance window, say overnight/off-production hours, to do the work instead.

From my understanding - and others, please correct me if I'm wrong - although you could clear/NULL the data in this column in batches, you couldn't drop the column in batches since a column drop implies rewriting the row without that column - and you can't have a row in a table that doesn't have an attribute column that the other rows have.