Hanging Drone Comb Removal

[eltalia]

That's years of experience, not his age.

He won't be the first to carry erroneous philosophy to the grave, ye olde boukes
are strewn with such quaint beliefs.
Luckily for us in Aussie much can be tested easily in a single year of application,
exceptions being the high country and maybe much of Tassie.

Never fear that which can be tested.

Bill

 

[Hivemaker.]

I put a shallow foundation in 1 brood frame per hive they always draw the remainder space in drone comb

Try putting one in a hive with a young queen in September or early October and see if they draw it out to drone then.

 

[birdsandbees]

He won't be the first to carry erroneous philosophy to the grave, ye olde boukes
are strewn with such quaint beliefs.
Luckily for us in Aussie much can be tested easily in a single year of application,
exceptions being the high country and maybe much of Tassie.

Never fear that which can be tested.

Bill

One thing I quickly picked up in this Hobby is that time served doesn't equal knowledge and ability.
I've heard some complete garbage being spouted by long term small scale beekeepers, blinkered vision and refusal to accept new ideas which have been proven to work is quite common I find.

Ref the Drones, unless the comb is wonky making it hard to lit the frames without rolling bees I leave it, as has been said bees love Drones, if you dont let them raise some they'll just modify your comb to do so.
I give them Drone foundation in many of mine, a bit of Drone flooding to aid mating.

 

[Swarm]

unless the comb is wonky making it hard to lit the frames without rolling bees I leave it, as has been said bees love Drones, if you dont let them raise some they'll just modify your comb to do so.
I give them Drone foundation in many of mine, a bit of Drone flooding to aid mating.

Precisely. We make too many demands on livestock and culling drones to aid us in our fight against varroa (something we introduced to our bees) in colonies already low in drone numbers is not helping the bees at all. If you have good, gentle, productive bees, cutting out drone comb as chicken food instead of filling the sky with decent genetics is a backward step.

 

[Millet]

I see a comment on worker foundation or drone foundation..to me it makes no difference as the bees draw the comb to the requirements they need...as for binning drone brood regarding varroa is a pointless waste of drones even more so if you treat correctly for varroa control..

 

[Antipodes]

Is there an ideal sized gap between the bottom frame of brood and a solid floor? From what I understand, too much gap and comb is extended on the bottom of the frame, and too little will see bees chewing out comb to make a cluster space......

 

[eltalia]

Is there an ideal sized gap between the bottom frame of brood and a solid floor? From what I understand, too much gap and comb is extended on the bottom of the frame, and too little will see bees chewing out comb to make a cluster space......

We run around 25mm for frames, and the foundationless builds recently (really) lean
to prove bees prefer something around that number, it varies for them on airpaths and
comb use. Most designs look to allow around 30mm.
Whatever, too tight and burrcomb is built glueing bottom bars to BB too much and
they'll use the space as comb, partially.
At 19mm spacer on BB they still have space to propolise intruder critters to the BB.


Bill

 

[Murox]

Is there an ideal sized gap between the bottom frame of brood and a solid floor? From what I understand, too much gap and comb is extended on the bottom of the frame, and too little will see bees chewing out comb to make a cluster space......

I very much doubt that here is, just think about 'wild nests' in wall cavities or in tree trunk cavities. Too little gap would be more of a problem I suspect.

 

[Antipodes]

Thanks Bill and Murox,

With the most common set up here, the risers are 10 mm and the frames are 6mm from the bottom of the box, giving 16mm of space for the bees between the frame and the base board. I've never seen comb extend down underneath the bottom of the frame with this set up, but have seen missing comb towards the lowest part of the frame. I'm now increasing the height of the riser to 19mm, which actually ends up giving me the 25mm that you are using Bill.

 

[eltalia]

Thanks Bill and Murox,

With the most common set up here, the risers are 10 mm and the frames are 6mm from the bottom of the box, giving 16mm of space for the bees between the frame and the base board. I've never seen comb extend down underneath the bottom of the frame with this set up, but have seen missing comb towards the lowest part of the frame. I'm now increasing the height of the riser to 19mm, which actually ends up giving me the 25mm that you are using Bill.

Yeppas, you'll find some builders change the height/depth between frame lug rest and bottom of the super/box.
I have no idea why that is. So 6mm is not unusual at all.

Some will argue different but in my experience the failure to draw comb to the bottombar is entirely
down to airpaths, and does vary between colonies of the same config, solely I believe an outcone of
variances in hivebody orientation (warm side /cold side) and dynamics in numbers.
Those spacings adopted are maybe a compromise for all these things.

Bill