there building comb in the feeder.

[biglongdarren]

one of my hives that are on a brood and a half national have started building comb in the feeder,it has only happened in the last few days.is this a good sign at this time of the year??
Darren

 

[Black Comb]

Yes

 

[biglongdarren]

why would this hive be doing it and not some of the others? any idea of there reasons for doing this?
Darren

 

[Suzi Q]

Would this also be an indication that the bees are ready for a bailey comb exchange? (If the beekeeper wanted to do so) or is it still too early?

 

[RoofTops]

Difficult to be sure but clearly it is a good sign in the sense the coloney is alive!

My first question would be why has it got a feeder on? If you have been feeding syrup it is possible they have filled up the brood area with stores so need somewhere for the queen to lay - and the only place with planning permission for an extension is your feeder.

If this is the case then it is a bad sign as the colony wants to expand but is limited in its ability. You could possibly tell by hefting how full they are of stores but would probably be better to wait until conditions are reasonable - i.e. no cold wind blowing, and have a peak under the crown board, but do not remove any frames. As you have brood and a half it will be more difficult to see down but if you can see lots of sealed stores and the hive is very heavy then a possible course of action would be to put a super of foundation or ideally drawn comb underneath the brood chamber and if they want space for the queen they will move down into it. When it is warmer you could shake any bees out of the top super and place a queen excluder under it.

 

[itma]

one of my hives that are on a brood and a half national have started building comb in the feeder,it has only happened in the last few days.is this a good sign at this time of the year??
Darren

Whatever else, its a sign that the comb-builders aren't short of stores, isn't it?

What is/was in the feeder? And what sort of feeder, a little 'rapid' one or a great deep Miller or Ashworth?

 

[drstitson]

"is this a good sign at this time of the year??"

at the very least it's a sign that the feeder is empty!!!!

 

[Teemore]

The 'feeder' may also be a container for fondant....

Some of the material I have read recommends supering colonies when they are at the white wax stage. I seem to remember that this has variously been described as being when they start to build brace comb on the tops of frames and/or when they start to 'repair' comb and add fresh wax to the edges of cells. Could the fact that a colony is building burr comb in a feeder be taken as an indication that they are getting close to needing a super?

I accept that the easy way to check would be to open the hive to see how the colony is building up and what stores they have etc but given the very changable weather we are getting, it is perhaps better not to be opening colonies out of curiosity...

 

[itma]

at the very least it's a sign that the feeder is empty!!!!

Unless, like mine last Autumn, they delighted in building inside the central 'access shaft' of a round plastic rapid feeder ... without being particularly interested in the syrup. They preferred the Ivy.

 

[biglongdarren]

yes when i talked about a feeder i meant a container with fondant in it,they havent been fed any syrup yet this year.
good detective work teemore.
Darren

 

[springers]

I have a small colony that went into the winter on 6 seams of bees, they are just in a brood box, I fed them like mad in the autumn and they have over the last week taken half of a Kilo of fondant. in the empty part of the container, I noticed today, they have just started to build comb. My first thought was they needed a super, but looking through the glass crown they have not expanded sideways at all since autumn. They are still only on 6 seams. They were a swarm last year, so I have no idea of their traits, but it looks as though they want to go upwards while they still have loads of sideways room. Should I give them what I think they want and see what happens? We have some Cherries in the area about a week off opening, so I was going to super then???
PS loads of pollen going in so I assume I have brood and Queenie is ramping up,

 

[Erichalfbee]

Springers
I have a similarly small colony, infact probably smaller. I dummied them down to six frames with kingspan over the winter and I intend to pop them into a poly nuc box next weekend. Could you dummy them to their six frames with perhaps a drawn empty frame each side (I presume you mean that they are on six frames and the rest are empty?) Add more frames as they grow. Don't give them more room up top than they can handle. Super when you have 7/8 frames of brood.

 

[steve's bees]

I have a colony which when checked yesterday had 8 seems of bees, dont know about brood though. They have built comb above the frame which they have moved honey into they are also bringing masses of pollen in some yellow and some an off white. Ready for a super or not.

If I give them a super they will have more room to keep warm.

If I don't they could swarm early.

Steve

 

[oliver90owner]

If I don't they could swarm early.

Just one of the problems with a standard deep brood. That is why I use extra-deeps.

Plenty of time before they swarm - you just need to watch for the simple indiacators of possible impending swarming. They are either there or not.

Unless there is detail of brood and stores (and therefore space), there is little anyone can advise apart from guessing.

 

[steve's bees]

If I don't they could swarm early.

Just one of the problems with a standard deep brood. That is why I use extra-deeps.

Plenty of time before they swarm - you just need to watch for the simple indiacators of possible impending swarming. They are either there or not.

Unless there is detail of brood and stores (and therefore space), there is little anyone can advise apart from guessing.

That is the way I am going (14x12). My plan is to artificialy swarm them when they start showing signs of q cells that way I can double my stock and get on to 14x12.
The only problem is they read the same book as we do!

Steve

 

[springers]

Thank you Eric, I will as soon as the weather allows.

 

[susbees]

yes when i talked about a feeder i meant a container with fondant in it,they havent been fed any syrup yet this year.
good detective work teemore.
Darren

Yep, got chaining bees in three of mine this week on the fondant container check. Hmm, first inspections on the strongest ones as soon as we get a warm day.

 

[biglongdarren]

the hive that this post is about had a super full of stores on top so that was prob why they were building comb above into the container,i moved the super below the brood box on saturday,they'll still know to go down now to get food instead of it being above them,hope i done right?
Darren