Manley frames

[sahtlinurk]

Hi,

just had a inspection of my biggest colony and they refuse to build my Manley frames in the super. Both brood boxes are full of everything, no queen cells.
What i did. i changed the super for normal frames. in the middle put one shallow full of honey which i had as a dronebrood catcher on BB. didn't use QE. If they still refuse to build, will lift a brood frame up on the super. And when they start building, i stick the QE between BB and super.
How does it sound?

Lauri

 

[MJBee]

Hi Lauri,
No harm in trying that but I have found that the bees will draw he frames when they need them. If there isn't much of a nectar flow on at the moment they wont bother but as soon as the next flow starts they will draw out the super frames in double quick time.
Mike

 

[subbuteo]

I've have a super on a 14x12 in a rape field. The brood body is bursting with bees and they have not touched the super. Last night I removed the QE and when I looked in this morning they had already started to draw out three super frames (Manley). Quite ridiculous.

 

[ryan_220]

I had this prob for a week they wouldnt draw out my super which was new and they where busting the brood box with bees and hunny.

Removed the QX for 24-36hours and then when back to see they where drawing 3 frames so i just refitted the QX with the queen in the brood box.

I was told that they need to have her scent in the super to start drawing it out from new more often than not.

 

[sahtlinurk]

I didn't have the QE and all they did was chewing and gumming.. will see now. I put Manleys on top of my new swarm, they had drawn 7 frames out of ten by today. hived two days ago. was a big swarm. hopefully they have enough energy to go for the manleys and use them as storing, leaving the BB for fresh Queen.

Lauri

 

[BKF Admin]

I was told that they need to have her scent in the super to start drawing it out from new more often than not.

Thats interesting,never new that..

 

[Poly Hive]

Never heard of that.

Ok so we have a situation of bees not keen to enter a super and draw foundation. On in this instance Manley frames.

Classic answer has already been given, that is to remove the excluder.

In this case the matter is compounded by the Manley frames. My answer to this, and it is not origional by any means, reduce the spacing. How? Add in some Hoffman frames to make matters easier for the bees, less intimidating as it were.

Remove the excluder for a few days, reduce the spacing a bit if you can, and voila the bees will do the business.

PH

 

[sahtlinurk]

i believe my trick worked. had a quick look in the super and they are building.