Starting again

[Monkey]

I had a pretty poor last year; lost one of my two colonies, and let the other swarm. For various reasons, I did very little around the hives, my inspections were not frequent enough, and everything is in a bit of a mess.

I hope to do better from now on, and want to start afresh. I plan to do a comb change as soon as the weather permits, then if the colony is strong enough, split them later on, so I end up with two colonies again. If not, do all I can to keep this one alive through to next year, and do a split then.

I guess it's far too early to be doing the comb change now, but when would be a good time to aim for, weather permitting obviously?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Why do you want to change the comb? and how do you plan on doing it.

 

[Apple]

Why do you want to change the comb? and how do you plan on doing it.

Suggest you get your order in for bees now, you may have to collect from Liverpool Docks!

 

[Ian123]

As above why do you need to do a comb change, also give us a clue how the hive is currently set up. I find the first spring inspections are a good chance to dump any poor frames with little if any need to do a complete change. Other than that a comb change gets about as complicated as adding another box on top.

 

[user 819]

Concentrate on building the bees up rather then worrying about comb, unless they were diseased any comb change can happen later when another colony is created via a strong colony split. Unless the old comb is really bad or very very Black I keep it and also use it for swarms, though over the course of three or four years it does get recycled.

 

[Monkey]

Why do you want to change the comb? and how do you plan on doing it.

Hi, thanks for replying.

The existing comb is now just short of four years old. When I last looked at it, at the end of last season, a few frames had holes, there was propolis everywhere, and it just didn't look good, largely due to my neglect over the year. I plan to do a Bailey comb change, when the weather is good enough.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hi, thanks for replying.

The existing comb is now just short of four years old. When I last looked at it, at the end of last season, a few frames had holes, there was propolis everywhere, and it just didn't look good, largely due to my neglect over the year. I plan to do a Bailey comb change, when the weather is good enough.

I wouldn't, we really need to move away from the 'beekeeping by numbers' mantra and be a bit sensible - unless you're commited not to make increase, it's just making a lot of unneeded work for the bees, I would just work out any really bad ones to the side and replace those. The fact that you are planning to split the colony to make increase will mean a straight 50% input of new frames to each colony anyway.

 

[Swarm]

As above, add another box and consider working any bad combs out when you split them.

 

[drex]

Do not rely on the calendar. Concentrate on keeping this lot alive, then get them built up to a good strength and then you can decide about comb change and splits. They will only struggle to work with the changes you intend to make, unless they are good and strong.

 

[Monkey]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll leave the comb change for now, and let them build themselves up. I'll replace any particularly awful frames individually.