Comb in eke

[Rich0909]

About 3 weeks ago my 2 hives felt significantly lighter when hefting so being my first winter I put fondant on both to augment the stores. The only ekes I had were a shallow one and one about 3" deep - at the weekend shredded cling film was being pulled out of both hives so I lifted the crown boards to put more fondant on. They had built a fair bit of new comb in the deep eke (see photo). Ok so I now know why the majority seem to prefer the takeaway box over the feedhole method but what to do with the comb? I would prefer not to disturb the bees further by removing it now but if I leave it in place for a couple of weeks until this fondant is gone will they be likely to use it for brood? Is it normal for a colony to be making new comb at this time of year?

Richard

 

[Poly Hive]

LOl it's a sign of a healthy colony.

Mine sit under the fondant and munch it. None of that nonsense here...LOL

Make sure she is not up there give the CB a good shake to shed the bees, scrape off in to a bucket to save the wax and cover the fondant with a blanket to save a recurrence.

PH

 

[drstitson]

so what if they use it for brood? when you stop feeding fondant just put a QE between brood box and eke and 3 weeks later you can discard it.

 

[Tom Bick]

so what if they use it for brood? when you stop feeding fondant just put a QE between brood box and eke and 3 weeks later you can discard it.

No that’s wrong.

If you leave it as it is they will fill the whole eke with comb and it will all be fixed to the top bars of the brood frames, the underside of the crown board and the sides of the eke. You will have no chance to fit a queen excluder and a big mess to deal with.

Do as ph has advised.

On a good point it shows that your hive is perhaps in very good shape.

 

[drstitson]

good point tom.

 

[Dishmop]

Scoop it all off, put it outside for the bees to eat and then give the clean comb to the local primary school for their nature class.

 

[Heather]

Scoop it all off, put it outside for the bees to eat and then give the clean comb to the local primary school for their nature class.

NO- if other bees in the vicinity- and there will be -robbing and possible spread of disease.

And schools these days refuse such things for a nature table.. elf and safety- They refused a beautiful empty wasp nest anyway!

 

[Dishmop]

NO- if other bees in the vicinity- and there will be -robbing and possible spread of disease.

Well that applies to nearly any situation.

 

[oliver90owner]

Well that applies to nearly any situation.

You might think so. I don't. Heather is right. Why encourage the possibility?

 

[Dishmop]

So bees from different hives never visit the same flowers or water or land on other hives or fences, and people dont add bees from one hive to top up another hive, or combine hives?
So you place a bit of comb with some stores on somewhere and the assumption is that bees are suddenly going to go beserk and rob everything in sight, (or on site)?

 

[oliver90owner]

and the assumption is

No.
The term to avoid was possibility. You seem to live in a very enclosed space with only your bees within miles. Yours is exceedingly poor advice for new beeks.

 

[johnfly]

if there is liquid in the comb I would scrape of onto a piece of oven foil and put it by the fondant so they can clean it out and cover whole area with cloth so they cannot get at any more open space, if no liquid then do as PH has said

 

[Dishmop]

I dont know if there are any other beeks close to me. Having noticed that bees are not overly quick at finding something in front of their own hive makes me think that bees from another hive in my garden are not going to find it any quicker and even less for those who might be within a mile or two radius.
At the moment because I am re-positioning my hives the two main ones are only approx 12" apart and I doubt if either colony notice they have neighbours. They fly out. They fly in. Never noticed them looking to see if anybody had left anything about for them to rob.
Obviously when they do find something they tell everybody else about it and the family goes shopping, but they are on a dedicated mission and not looking around in the other aisles to see if theres anything else that they can steal.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Is it normal for a colony to be making new comb at this time of year?

Ours are doing almost the same, on a smaller scale.

Tucked inside one of the almost empty fondant boxes I removed yesterday were two pieces like this, another colony had built one piece but hadn't been quite as heavy with the propolis so the comb was lighter coloured.

The comb was scraped off and put straight into a lidded plastic box.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

if there is liquid in the comb I would scrape of onto a piece of oven foil and put it by the fondant so they can clean it out and cover whole area with cloth so they cannot get at any more open space, if no liquid then do as PH has said

I had some comb like that in an eke when I put apiguard on - I just gently rinsed it in cold water to get all the hone out and let it dry - it then went to my niece's primary school - they passed it around for the whole class to see.

 

[oliver90owner]

I dont know

Eggzackerly!

Never noticed them looking

GG, bees use their 'snouts' to smell, don't they!!!

It is a bad practice in general and even poorer form advising it where new beeks are collecting information. Full stop! Please don't try to make excuses for advising your bad habits to others.

 

[johnfly]

there are so many things that you can do with it, Its one of those situations where you use your own imagination with sense, its also called learning for the next time

 

[itma]

Wax production.

Since these bees are burning carbs to make wax - rather than stashing the treasure away - doesn't that suggest that they might have enough stores to be going on with, and may not need any of this fondant that is being given to them?
If hefting isn't being relied upon, maybe this mild spell would allow a very quick look at the stores situation down below?

 

[Dishmop]

I dont know

Eggzackerly!

Never noticed them looking

GG, bees use their 'snouts' to smell, don't they!!!

It is a bad practice in general and even poorer form advising it where new beeks are collecting information. Full stop! Please don't try to make excuses for advising your bad habits to others.

I was stating what I have observed and I certainly wasnt making excuses.

Indeed bees do smell but if you painted the front of their hive a different colour (hue) while they were out then they would be confused when they returned. Therefore they see when something is different, and from that one would think therefore that they might take notice of an object that wasnt there before.

 

[Dishmop]

it then went to my niece's primary school - they passed it around for the whole class to see.

I sent a piece to the primary school and got a message back that after the kids had seen it the teacher was going to melt it for candles and could she have some more.

Yeh! Sure! I hope she enjoyed her candle.


and no.... you cannot make handles for forks out of wax