Housel Positioning of frames

[Norton]

Re small cell: The "Busbees" had a fair bit of A. m. capensis in them, hence the easy acceptance of 4,9.

 

[Antipodes]

What I have seen swarms, they start comb building from the side wall. They do not start from the middle of the box.

When the swarm is big, they start from many points and then join partial combs together

...... how the bees know, in what point of cavity they are working and what comb they should formulate?

Yes, but as far as I can ascertain, Housel's observations were in relation to open air colonies, not those in a cavity or box.

 

[Buzzlodge]

Yes, but as far as I can ascertain, Housel's observations were in relation to open air colonies, not those in a cavity or box.

Then, even if his observations were correct, he was hardly observing a normal situation.

 

[Antipodes]

Then, even if his observations were correct, he was hardly observing a normal situation.

Yes, I see what you are getting at. I've seen a couple of genuine open air nests here in the last couple of years, you know, where there is no sidewall (not in a corner or anything), so they can't be rare, and I guess he was making his observations based on more than a handful of open air nests.
I think Housel was/is in Florida in the USA . I believe it's sort of sub-tropical there.
Have you ever captured/removed an open air nest in Ireland?

 

[Finman]

Yes, but as far as I can ascertain, Housel's observations were in relation to open air colonies, not those in a cavity or box.

So that is totally out of my interest

 

[Buzzlodge]

Have you ever captured/removed an open air nest in Ireland?

Not personally, but I have seen photos of a few here, small combs built on branches. I suppose a swarm gets hit by bad weather and never moves from its original location and after a few days they start drawing comb... They would never survive the wet winters.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think Housel was/is in Florida in the USA . I believe it's sort of sub-tropical there.

And still never managed to produce any physical evidence of this wonder comb

 

[Finman]

The original question was "hiusel posotion of frames".
If the nest in under open sky, it does not have frames.

 

[Michael Palmer]

The original question was "hiusel posotion of frames".
If the nest in under open sky, it does not have frames.

Finman, you are too hung up on semantics. The words comb and frame are often used interchangeably. If someone references Housel positioning the frames, they obviously mean house positioning the combs. But you probably already knew that, eh?

 

[Finman]

Finman, you are too hung up on semantics. The words comb and frame are often used interchangeably. If someone references Housel positioning the frames, they obviously mean house positioning the combs. But you probably already knew that, eh?

Frame is to me a frame.

Wild hives have never frames.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Frame is to me a frame.

Wild hives have never frames.

Open your mind to change and quit the nit-picking. It does get tiresome

 

[Finman]

Open your mind to change and quit the nit-picking. It does get tiresome

Yes, I do. ..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

glad we're agreed on one thing

 

[Finman]

glad we're agreed on one thing

How are you so sure?

 

[Bazzer]

A way to test if the bees in a colony have a preference for a particular orientation would be to introduce two undrawn frames into the same box but a few frames apart - one with the foundation oriented according to Housel and the other the "wrong way". If the bees consistently draw out the "Housel" frame first then it would show that at a minimum they differentiate between orientations. Obviously with many other factors involved the experiment would need to be repeated many time to get any sort of reliable statistics.

 

[Finman]

A way to test if the bees in a colony have a preference for a particular orientation would be to introduce two undrawn frames into the same box but a few frames apart - one with the foundation oriented according to Housel and the other the "wrong way". If the bees consistently draw out the "Housel" frame first then it would show that at a minimum they differentiate between orientations. Obviously with many other factors involved the experiment would need to be repeated many time to get any sort of reliable statistics.

I know, that I may put the foundation to any direction, and bees draw foundations in every case.

One frame was collected from pieces and to different directions. Bees drew the whole sheet at same time evenly.

Do you think, that bees first check the hive, 3 boxes, and then they search, what is the best point to start cell drawing. And in some point they think, this is not good. Maybe tomorrow...

I have put over 15 years old foundations into a hive and bees draw them like what ever.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A way to test if the bees in a colony have a preference for a particular orientation would be to introduce two undrawn frames into the same box but a few frames apart - one with the foundation oriented according to Housel and the other the "wrong way"

Foundation is just a flat sheet of wax with hexagonal shapes embossed into it, it doesn't have an up side, a down side, an inside, an outside, a right or a left side. Whichever way you put it it does not have a wrong side.
It's just a load of hippy dippy spheroids put there to excite the gullible.

 

[Finman]

Foundations have been used 150 years, and no problems have appeared.

Dee Lusby explainen 2002 the housel idea, but what has appeared after that?
20 years...

 

[Antipodes]

Not personally, but I have seen photos of a few here, small combs built on branches. I suppose a swarm gets hit by bad weather and never moves from its original location and after a few days they start drawing comb... They would never survive the wet winters.

Fair enough. I remember a few years ago, hearing a bloke on an internet video, who gave up beekeeping in Ireland as he reckoned it was too wet. I have a mate who has a colony in a branch in his olive tree in Melbourne that started in spring 2020 and survived the Melbourne winter last year. He reckons it's huge now. They've had a couple of reasonably wet years (for Melbourne!) with 712mm in 2020 and 683mm last year. I'm very impressed with a colony that can survive that long in the open air!

 

[Murox]

Fair enough. I remember a few years ago, hearing a bloke on an internet video, who gave up beekeeping in Ireland as he reckoned it was too wet. I have a mate who has a colony in a branch in his olive tree in Melbourne that started in spring 2020 and survived the Melbourne winter last year. He reckons it's huge now. They've had a couple of reasonably wet years (for Melbourne!) with 712mm in 2020 and 683mm last year. I'm very impressed with a colony that can survive that long in the open air!

An impromptu study could be interesting.