Brace comb question

[perrybee]

I have been feeding a new hive set up this summer whilst treating with Apiguard. Hive arrangement has been brood box, eke to contain Apiguard, then crown board and then another eke to take a English feeder and finally roof.

Inspected today and instead of taking syrup into brood box and building new comb on foundation frames they have built lots of filled brace comb under the crown board.

I have moved the filled brace onto of the brood frames and have enclosed it in an eke topped with a crown board and roof. I have finished Apiguard treatment and feeding.

Will the bees move the filled brace comb down into the brood box as I want them to? Alternatively should I put the brace comb above the crown board to encourage them to take it into the brood box.

I only took up beekeeping last year so any advice welcomed as I don't want to remove the filled brace comb.

Thanks.

 

[alldigging]

I cut the brace comb and put it above the crown board. They did clear all the honey out but then decided to start sticking it all down. Smoked them a little and took it away.

 

[alanf]

I've had bees building comb from a crownboard above the apiguard eke in previous years. I tried moving it above a second crown board for them to empty but they were having none of it, instead the queen moved up and started laying in the wild comb. Going into winter with a nest split either side of a board wasn't a great idea so I carefully cut out the comb and bound it into frames with rubber bands then moved them down to the brood box.

They joined and extended the comb into near full frames and came through the winter just fine. They were still keen on making comb wherever a gap was presented though - they got apilife var the next year and no eke.

 

[REDWOOD]

I put the comb on the floor below the frames and the bees will do with it what they want as they are very good at recycling.

 

[itma]

Easiest way of feeding the comb back to the bees would be to crush it, and let them have it in the English feeder - without the central cup - so the bees can access the whole box, and you can spread out the 'honey'.
But I wouldn't rush to feed that stuff back to them - it'll store.

However, I fear that the real problem might be that you have rather a lot of undrawn foundation in the brood box ("instead of ... building new comb on foundation frames ...) and nowhere near 40 pounds of stores. But without the drawn comb, they don't have space to stash more away ... that is where the urgency lies.