Gaps in foundation

[karlbown]

I went to help a friend of mine today who has two WBC hives which he inherited when he bought his smallholding. He's not had much chance to look at them and has just given them Varroa treatment. There's just one brood box in each one and we wanted to have a decent look at them.

The first one we looked at seemed fairly quiet, though there were eggs and larvae in various stages so it looks like the queen is still laying. However there were a couple of frames with large gaps in them, 2-3" diameter. Would this be wasps? Or mice perhaps? He does have an entrance reducer so I thought mice probably couldn't get in. Anything else that might cause gaps like that?

The second hive was much busier, and had quite aggressive bees. The bees had started building quite a lot of comb on top of the frames so I suggested they were short of space and we put a super with frames on top. He couldn't find a queen excluder so we just put it straight on top of the brood box, but he wasn't planning on taking honey this year anyway. Does this seem like good advice?

Thanks in advance

 

[oliver90owner]

Seems fair enough.

Were the gaps actually holes or patches of wax with no cells? Bees will change cell wax if it is old or wrong type.

 

[karlbown]

Actual holes in the foundation all the way through. The frames looked like they've been in use for a few years as they're pretty well drawn out for the most part

 

[Little John]

Actual holes in the foundation all the way through. The frames looked like they've been in use for a few years ...

I didn't reply to your first post, because for some reason I thought this was new(ish) comb ... but ... I've seen something similar on neglected comb, where pollen has gone mouldy on both sides. Rather than just chomp through the comb down to the spine (or foundation), they just keep going, and cut it all out.

The other time I've seen this is where the girls have been after a wax-moth larvae.

But - usually they repair the comb pretty soon afterwards. Maybe there's a union dispute going on ...

LJ

 

[itma]

Brood comb should be replaced on a 3 year cycle, approximately.
I think it sounds overdue that this lot got something fresher.

WBC has a small brood box. Overwintering on brood and a half or double brood is about the only way of getting enough stores in. I'd be thinking of getting an extra box onto the first hive, asap. Probably make do with the manky brood frames until they are pretty empty in spring.

Comb above the topbars suggests a beespace issue. Check the height of the rim and whether the frames sit in the box with the top of the bars level with the edge of the box.

 

[Queens59]

I have found that my bees make holes in foundation far more in WBCs than in a National or Poly...

 

[karlbown]

Ok, so looks like something the bees might have done themselves? I definitely think we need to get some newer frames on there, also I'll suggest adding a super to that hive as well. Thanks guys

 

[BeeNice]

Ok, so looks like something the bees might have done themselves? I definitely think we need to get some newer frames on there, also I'll suggest adding a super to that hive as well. Thanks guys

If you are adding foundation in another brood box, I would also think about feeding to help draw out the comb as the forage is starting to reduce and while you have plenty of bees in the hive could be a good time to do this.

 

[yeogi75]

are the holes square shaped , if inherited could be cells cut out and coomb to old for bees to bother repairing . or if round made there own entrances thru.