Not drawing wax

[Rock_Chick]

About 4 weeks ago, in a rare break in the weather, I did an inspection, all was good, queen laying on 7 frames, so I put on an other brood box and put on some feed, the weather then went like middle of winter again, so not much chance of going into the bees, I checked the feed was being taken and refilled when needed. On Thursday I managed to have a look in, they have not drawn any of the foundation at all, storing the feed in bottom brood box, also at some point in between all the rubbish weather they have swarmed, the swarming I can get, as they where short on room, but why not drawing the wax ? It’s a few years old but always kept in a sealed box in a warm place, it smelled lovely when I was making up the frames, so I’m just puzzled on why not touch it, possibly too cold to be drawing wax,? but not too cold to swarm !!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Extra space is only a small part of discouraging swarming (but it seems to be the solution to all according to some) Personally I would have considered the wisdom of slamming a whole new box of foundation on top of a colony on only seven frames of brood.
The cold weather would have curtailed comb building, they decided to stay with the space they had and the piling on of syrup just encouraged them to store it and run out of room

 

[GuyNir]

Not sure how you fed them, but for drawing wax, I’ve found that slow and steady thin syrup is best. Something else you could have done is lift a couple of brood frames on top, that would have force them to work up also and maybe encourage wax drawing.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not warm enough. I’d have given them a drawn super for room.

 

[pargyle]

Not warm enough. I’d have given them a drawn super for room.

Extra space is only a small part of discouraging swarming (but it seems to be the solution to all according to some) Personally I would have considered the wisdom of slamming a whole new box of foundation on top of a colony on only seven frames of brood.
The cold weather would have curtailed comb building, they decided to stay with the space they had and the piling on of syrup just encouraged them to store it and run out of room

Yep ... too much space .. weather very cold for the time of year - who can blame them not wanting to expand into all that space.

Where's RAB ... ?

Think about what the bees actually want and need and work with them - think bees - don't follow the books and the calendar.

 

[Antipodes]

About 4 weeks ago, in a rare break in the weather, I did an inspection, all was good, queen laying on 7 frames, so I put on an other brood box and put on some feed, the weather then went like middle of winter again, so not much chance of going into the bees, I checked the feed was being taken and refilled when needed. On Thursday I managed to have a look in, they have not drawn any of the foundation at all, storing the feed in bottom brood box, also at some point in between all the rubbish weather they have swarmed, the swarming I can get, as they where short on room, but why not drawing the wax ? It’s a few years old but always kept in a sealed box in a warm place, it smelled lovely when I was making up the frames, so I’m just puzzled on why not touch it, possibly too cold to be drawing wax,? but not too cold to swarm !!

Jane,
Have a look at the suggestions under the heading "opening the broodnest" in the link below. Post back with questions if it is confusing.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm#opening

 

[user 819]

If it was a swarm then yes they will have drawn comb, but an established colonies ethic will work on the basis of what flow is available and certainly of late the weather has curtailed this. Cool weather and lack of opportunity as has been mentioned and they will store a free lunch.
Until forage and weather is good (likely the next 10 days or so) there is a fine line between giving them a lot of work they aren't keen on or give them drawn comb of any size.
Always nice to have drawn comb in the store so come summer think about giving a brood as a super to have some nice drawn comb for next year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think a lot of people are going to caught out in the next few weeks, Due to the cold weather and lack of forage. I've noticed that bees are stepping back a bit, almost into autumn mode with brood nests contracting and the bees bringing all available stores down to be as near to the cluster as possible - almost surrounding themselves with stores. Now the weather is good again and bees are bringing in nectar, they are going to quickly think they ae running out of space - and will swarm

 

[Erichalfbee]

I think a lot of people are going to caught out in the next few weeks, Due to the cold weather and lack of forage. I've noticed that bees are stepping back a bit, almost into autumn mode with brood nests contracting and the bees bringing all available stores down to be as near to the cluster as possible - almost surrounding themselves with stores. Now the weather is good again and bees are bringing in nectar, they are going to quickly think they ae running out of space - and will swarm

Yes when I had a look in a few days ago some colonies were running on vapour and with supers empty there was backfilling of brood cells.

 

[viridens]

This is an occasion where hives without a QE may score.

 

[Worker bee]

I've had top insulation on my hives and they've drawn some frames. If you have an extractor spin the full frames out then stick them in brood box that's drawn and let the queen lay in them. Then when she has stick them in the middle of the empty brood. Then feed back to them the nectar you extracted. That will get some bees to move up

 

[oliver90owner]

Phil,

I was just over on the other thread with a hopelessly oversized double-brood hive (with super) with what is described as a ‘weak’ colony and discussing adding capped brood to get chilled!

 

[Finman]

Today I looked hives. I have in every hive semidrawn combs from last year, but no colony has started to finish the combs for the reason of rain and cold weathers.

When weathers are bad, bees put save mode on. They have done this many times during last 2 months.

Our apple trees are now in bloom so are dandelions and turnip rape. Heavy rains during this week. Perhaps 60 mm water.

 

[Boston Bees]

About 4 weeks ago, in a rare break in the weather, I did an inspection, all was good, queen laying on 7 frames, so I put on an other brood box and put on some feed, the weather then went like middle of winter again, so not much chance of going into the bees, I checked the feed was being taken and refilled when needed. On Thursday I managed to have a look in, they have not drawn any of the foundation at all, storing the feed in bottom brood box, also at some point in between all the rubbish weather they have swarmed, the swarming I can get, as they where short on room, but why not drawing the wax ? It’s a few years old but always kept in a sealed box in a warm place, it smelled lovely when I was making up the frames, so I’m just puzzled on why not touch it, possibly too cold to be drawing wax,? but not too cold to swarm !!

Was there any drawn comb in the upper box at all?

A golden rule (I think) is that bees are much much more likely to draw comb if they are "filling in" a gap - horizontal or vertical - between two drawn-comb areas of their hive.

For example, one way to massively speed up drawing a brood box of foundation (or foundationless) is to put it between the main brood nest (below) and a super of honey, or even just empty drawn comb (above). The bees hate the gap in their nest, and work hard to fill it in.

In your case, if you had a drawn frame (even one lifted up from the brood box below) at either end of the new box then the bees would have viewed the new box as part of the nest, and been much more likely to draw that foundation out.

Without this there is always the risk that they simply don't consider the new box as usable space, and store the syrup in the brood nest.

 

[Curly green finger's]

This is an occasion where hives without a QE may score.

Giving the queen Time really it does help.
Then giving them a second bb when there is brood to emerge in the super or the brood box needs a second bb the top now super will end up with honey in alls well.

 

[Worker bee]

Not warm enough. I’d have given them a drawn super for room.

I don't agree I have fresh drawn brood frames drawn two weeks ago in wooden hives, I've got some on a 2nd brood drawn in the past month. It's how you get it drawn. If you just plonk it above or below they won't touch it but then I've been acused of fiddling with my hives too much by some so maybe I stressed them into drawing frames

 

[Erichalfbee]

I don't agree I have fresh drawn brood frames drawn two weeks ago in wooden hives, I've got some on a 2nd brood drawn in the past month. It's how you get it drawn. If you just plonk it above or below they won't touch it but then I've been acused of fiddling with my hives too much by some so maybe I stressed them into drawing frames

It was still too cold and I've certainly never accused you of fiddling with anything....don't know you well enough

the weather then went like middle of winter again, so not much chance of going into the bees, I checked the feed was being taken and refilled when needed.

 

[pargyle]

Phil,

I was just over on the other thread with a hopelessly oversized double-brood hive (with super) with what is described as a ‘weak’ colony and discussing adding capped brood to get chilled!

Seems to be a lot of common issues in threads at present .... not a lot of thinking going on !

 

[Worker bee]

It was still too cold and I've certainly never accused you of fiddling with anything....don't know you well enough

I didn't say you I said here on this forum, didn't mean it as a direct comment

 

[Erichalfbee]

I didn't say you I said here on this forum, didn't mean it as a direct comment

And you missed the joke......I must try harder