Reluctance to draw foundation after Pagden split

[gp125john]

I have a really strong colony that was building cells in preparation to swarm, so I used the Pagden method to control it. Q on her frame into a box of foundation, excluder and 2x supers back on top.

It's been a week with a good flow on over the last few days and still they havent touched the foundation. Which is new 2020 premium foundation.

The queen was certainly there initially as I watched her walk down into the frames, the colony are taking pollen in but storing it in the supers.

I have seen queens go off lay for several weeks before so I am not too concerned about that. May add a test frame next week if still no action.

I put another empty drawn frame in to try to encourage them but is this common?

Other colonies can draw foundation in no time at the moment.

 

[enrico]

If the queen is off lay or not there there is no need. They will draw it when they need to but it is frustrating. The frame of drawn comb was a good idea. Look for eggs on it.
E

 

[Murox]

Perhaps they did not need the supers on top of the foundation ? - they draw comb when they need it.

 

[gp125john]

I was thinking of taking the fullish super off of the two supers off and leaving them with just one super for a week. Its a strong colony and I have already reduced the space available to them by giving them a standard national brood rather than 14x12 (there is a reason). They will really need to build wax then surely....... we shall see!

 

[masterBK]

When you carry out a Pagden you are leaving behind the younger house bees (including the waxworkers with the hive containing the brood and queen cells). The foragers are with the queen and while it is true they can switch on their wax glands and build comb they aren't as good as doing it as when younger. Also you get the occasional colony abscond if you just provide them with foundation (some beekeepers put excluder between floor and brood box after a pagden for a few days to stop this). Best practice in my opinion is to put at least one drawn comb ether side of the brood frame and fill rest of box with foundation. I select a sealed brood frame and add the queen to it rather than just using the frame she is on as this reduces chance of them building queen cells until they get over swarm fever. No doubt someone will soon be on to rubbish all this!

 

[gp125john]

Yes absconding was something I was worried about. I had a quick peek today at the drawn combs I had put in and they are now all full of eggs which is great.