Worker or Drone comb, does it matter?

[LeaBees]

Quick question;

About to reduce space in a hive that has 2 supers, top one a BBox as a super and a regular small box. Early this year the colony drew out and and part filled mostly foundation-less frames in the BBox super at which point I added a regular super below it (both still above a QX). Along came the past few weeks of shocker weather and they've mostly emptied the topmost BBox super. I was going to remove it so they concentrate on the small super and replace one of the main BBox frames with a frame of the 'most full' stores frame from the BBox super. Being mostly foundation-less frames there is a lot of it drawn as drone comb.
Does it matter? Am I setting up for the expanding colony to lay up more drones than they would if it were worker comb? I know they convert worker comb to drone, but do they go the other way?

Thanks

 

[Boston Bees]

They can't convert drone comb to worker comb, no. Not without tearing it down and starting again anyway.

But it's fine to put a frame of drone comb in the main BB. Desirable in fact. Obviously you won't put it between two frames with brood in, so you will have to put it towards the outer edge of the BB which is exactly where drone comb should be anyway. The queen might lay in it during June, which is fine (drones are good things!), and then later they'll use it for honey stores.

 

[enrico]

Couldn't quite follow what was where! If the shallow frames have drone comb then there is no problem using that in a super for storing honey later. Is that what you wanted to know? Some beekeepers only use drone foundation in supers.

 

[LeaBees]

Couldn't quite follow what was where! If the shallow frames have drone comb then there is no problem using that in a super for storing honey later. Is that what you wanted to know? Some beekeepers only use drone foundation in supers.

Prob is a bit confusing, apologies so I'll try to make it clearer. From bottom going up.

DeepBox (brood), QX, DeepBox (mostly F-less frames)
then I added shallow box so it went to;
DeepBox (brood), QX, Shallowbox, DeepBox (mostly F-less frames)
bad weather hit and colony dug into stores, so now I want to go to;
DeepBox (brood), QX, Shallowbox, but taking 1 or 2 of any wet F-less frames from the upper Deepbox and put them in the brood box.

The crux of the question was by putting the F-less frames from the previously upper DeepBox which have been drawn as mostly drone comb into the brood box will the colony be forced to produce more drones than would otherwise when they start using the frames for brood? Or will they work around it and make what they need of it ?

Thanks

 

[Boston Bees]

Or will they work around it and make what they need of it ?

Yes. Bees really want about 15% (ish), or even more, of their comb to be drone comb. We often prevent them from doing this by using foundation, which isn't good. By putting in a frame of drone comb at the edge of the box you are helping redress this.

 

[enrico]

Oh! That is clearer. Unfortunately I am not sure of the answer so I accept Boston Bees answer

 

[pargyle]

Oh! That is clearer. Unfortunately I am not sure of the answer so I accept Boston Bees answer

I think the answer is ...go to double brood (if these are standard national boxes) if they need this much space and if there are at least 7 or 8 frames of brood then it's time to add ONE super and wait for them to start filling it before addding another one. WIth (if inclined) a queen excluder between the brood box(es) and the super(s).

Leabees present hive stack is rather less than conventional ....and it's inviting all sorts of problems for him to contend with...

It's pretty much irrelevant what the cell size in the brood frames is as the bees will build whatever they need to make the drones they need ... Mine often have up to 20% drone brood at this time of the year - no problem whatsoever - if that's what the bees want - who am I to deny them ?

 

[gmonag]

When you go foundationless it is clear that the bees want to draw more drone comb than most beekeepers provide.

 

[LeaBees]

Thanks all.
Will be simplifying the setup and turning it into a more standard stack and not worrying too much about drone comb or not.

 

[jeff33]

Couldn't quite follow what was where! If the shallow frames have drone comb then there is no problem using that in a super for storing honey later. Is that what you wanted to know? Some beekeepers only use drone foundation in supers.

I have never considered this previously, I guess more is stored that way?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have never considered this previously, I guess more is stored that way?

But don't make cut comb this way. It looks awful

 

[Boston Bees]

I have never considered this previously, I guess more is stored that way?

And possibly easier to extract? Another argument is that they won't store pollen in drone comb allegedly. No idea if that's true.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

the

I have never considered this previously, I guess more is stored that way?

The difference is negligible