rae
Field Bee
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2009
- Messages
- 826
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Berkshire
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 8 and 3 nucs...it's swarm time...
I have a small problem with one of my colonies, it isn't a disaster, but it is becoming annoying. The bees are untidy. When presented with a nice frame of foundation, they will chew a big hole in it, then they will realise that they can build brace comb between the adjacent frames through the hole, and in a matter of days, all three frames will become a complete mess. They got so bad with one frame that all we had left was the wire - they simply chewed the whole thing out and decided to build brace in the gap. The frames are nothing clever - Hoffmans in a National, the other colony seems to get on fine with them and build nice straight combs.
What is the best approach? I can think of:
1) Be ruthless, doesn't matter what is in the brace, cut it out and remove it. Replace damaged frames with fresh foundation. I have noticed they have been very good rebuilding the super frames that we have just extracted, so this might be the best idea.
2) Try and work round it, but at the risk of killing the queen as we try and remove a frame.
3) On top of (1) or (2), re-queen. Don't really want to do that as they are productive.
Thanks!
What is the best approach? I can think of:
1) Be ruthless, doesn't matter what is in the brace, cut it out and remove it. Replace damaged frames with fresh foundation. I have noticed they have been very good rebuilding the super frames that we have just extracted, so this might be the best idea.
2) Try and work round it, but at the risk of killing the queen as we try and remove a frame.
3) On top of (1) or (2), re-queen. Don't really want to do that as they are productive.
Thanks!