How do you 'bruise the comb' of stores'?

[RosieMc]

Hi

I keep reading the advice to 'bruise the comb' of honey in order that the bees move stores from the brood box to the supers.

How do you do this? Especially when some stores are capped, and others are uncapped?

Any advice, methods, and thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[drstitson]

uncapped don't need bruising!!!!

capped - just run hive tool gently over surface to damage the cappings.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Scrape the flat end of your hive tool over the cappings, just enough to see the cappings darken with the honey underneath, not hard enough to uncap.

 

[tonybloke]

Scrape the flat end of your hive tool over the cappings, just enough to see the cappings darken with the honey underneath, not hard enough to uncap.

 

[RosieMc]

Thanks - knew there would be a simple answer

 

[RoseCottage]

I use one of Th ornes yellow uncapping combs and scratch the surface so that the honey is exposed. Did this to 3 frames in BB last night.

I expect someone will explain why this is wrong...


All the best,
Sam

 

[beesleybees]

as a newb, could someone please explain to me why you would want to 'bruise' the capped honey?? im guessing this is only done on foundation frames am i right??

 

[Winker]

as a newb, could someone please explain to me why you would want to 'bruise' the capped honey?? im guessing this is only done on foundation frames am i right??

so the bees take it up stairs to the super and leave the brood box for brood not honey storage

 

[beesleybees]

so the bees take it up stairs to the super and leave the brood box for brood not honey storage

i see, i can understand this slightly as obviously we want as much honey as possiblein the supers and it also give her maj more laying space but what happens when we come towards the end of the season??

surley they need honey reserves in the foundation frames to get them over the winter. ive read not to leave supers on ove the winter for them as it just more 'space' for them to keep up to temp.

please remember i am a newb so my thinking could be totally wrong. im sure someone on here will put me right

 

[beesleybees]

Can anyone answer the above please. I'm really interested

 

[VEG]

its easy when the supers come off some people feed the bees so they can top up the stores in the brood box, or some leave a super on with honey in it and remove the queen excluder.

 

[Poly Hive]

First of all nothing can be stored in a frame of foundation as that is all it is. A sheet of Foundation.

A drawn comb is either described as a stores comb, which in turn can be pollen or honey or syrup, or a brood comb. A brood comb in turn can be called a sealed brood frame, or an open brood frame. OPen brood is normally worker brood and less than the capping age which is as I am sure you already know, day 8/9.

At this time of year one of the objectives is to keep pushing the queen to lay. In order to do that then as advised bruise the cappings and encourage them to use it for brood.

PH

 

[RosieMc]

i see, i can understand this slightly as obviously we want as much honey as possiblein the supers and it also give her maj more laying space but what happens when we come towards the end of the season??

surley they need honey reserves in the foundation frames to get them over the winter. ive read not to leave supers on ove the winter for them as it just more 'space' for them to keep up to temp.

please remember i am a newb so my thinking could be totally wrong. im sure someone on here will put me right

Please correct me if I have my theory wrong -

As far as I am aware, in winter the bees cluster together in the centre of the brood chamber to keep warm. They need access to their stores/larder to eat to help them survive when the weather gets cold/frost/snow/ice age, but the stores need to be nearby. Once the middle stores have gone they will be unwilling to move, as one cluster, to the sides of the the hive as it is colder there.

Warm air rises (up to the super if there is one on), so the bees will eat the stores there. The QE is removed so as not to leave the queen behind all on her own in the brood box. If no super is left on, feed with sugar syrup at first, then later on fondant.

Bees will often build stores on a frame of foundation together with brood. But I, like many others, have foundation frames with nothing but honey on to the point whereby the queen is running out of space to lay. Some of my bees are not building up stores on the supers very well. Hence the need to create more space for the queen to lay and the bees to move the stores up stairs.

Hope this helps. Has anyone else got any wise advice to offer?