Wouldnt it be good if

[VEG]

You could buy drawn out comb the same way as you buy foundation. I dont mean old comb but instead of it being in sheets it would come with a very deep impression instead. (if you get what i mean).

 

[taff..]

Isn't drawing comb a part of the usual swarm control?

 

[victor meldrew]

Drawing comb is essential for bees at their wax producing age, (idle hands cause mischief ), over crownig and being thwarted both contribute to premature swarming .

Moral is "Keep them busy and happy ".

John

 

[VEG]

It would be handy for when you got a flow on and only foundation. That was the reasoning behind my mad thinking.

 

[victor meldrew]

It would be handy for when you got a flow on and only foundation. That was the reasoning behind my mad thinking.

Where I live the main flow starts 2nd week in July (weather seems to have little influence!), by this time I have supers on (drawn comb plus foundation in between). A honey flow is ideal for comb building .If you are in an oil seed rape area, you could get loads of nice comb drawn in the brood boxes but keep an eye on space in hive and get supers on asap

John

 

[jimbeekeeper]

I think thats a great idea veg.

Maybe as a compromise for idle hands the main brood center section could be drawn and then fading to the edges as normal foundation for them to draw

 

[FenBee]

I am in favour of the bees making all their own comb. Assuming your bee are healthy, then at least this way you know it is wax without any risk of contamination, e.g. Viruses or wax moth eggs, etc. Buying even more wax than just foundation, makes the risk of importing viruses even higher.

This is one of the advantages of Top-Bar hives. From what I have seen it does not take the bees that long to make comb or draw foundation.

 

[sherwood]

Where I live the main flow starts 2nd week in July (weather seems to have little influence!), by this time I have supers on (drawn comb plus foundation in between). A honey flow is ideal for comb building .If you are in an oil seed rape area, you could get loads of nice comb drawn in the brood boxes but keep an eye on space in hive and get supers on asap

John

You may find that you get little or no yield from the OSR this year the new varieties are wind pollinated and produce little or no nectar to speak of I should check with your local farmers or seed merchants to see what being sown. This comes from OLsens one of the larger seed merchants.

 

[BKF Admin]

Thats a statement and a half Sherwood,the feedback should be interesting.

 

[jimbeekeeper]

Admin I think Sherwood might be correct!

I recently had my hives tested for nosema , all OK, but it was commented that they where quite malnourished.

I have quite a few fields round me of OSR, but I am still going to put a week feed on them this week, unless tomorrows inspection proves an increase.

 

[rich]

I must admit that it could be true, I had a colony only 200m away from an OSR field last year, it was the opposite side of a very busy dual carriageway, and sort of blamed that (they just didn’t fancy the dicing with a juggernauts) but they never touched it at all.
Again this year I have more or less the same scenario, except my home apiary is only 400m from a field as well; what I have seen so far doesn’t lead me to think they are hardly working it, if at all.

Rich

 

[FROGDOGDIVER]

I like the idea of purchasing fresh clean drawn out comb. Whilst I feel it is better if the bees draw their own I cannot coax mine in to the supers and they have filled every last bit of space in the brood box wih nectar then thrown swarm cells up. They have room there if they want it. The supers were put on in good time. It is my feeling they are being lazy and cant be bothered drawing out the foundation. I was thinking of giving it a light spray of sugar syrup to see if it helps them get started.

 

[BKF Admin]

Do you have a QE on ? you could always spray like you said but also remove the QE until they start to draw the foundation.

 

[FROGDOGDIVER]

Do you have a QE on ? you could always spray like you said but also remove the QE until they start to draw the foundation.

Yes I have a queen excluder on. I was concerned about the queen getting up though and laying. Do you think it should be ok until the super foundations get drawn out?

 

[BKF Admin]

It should be ok as I was thinking of you removing it for a couple of days,just long enough to get the bees crawling over the foundation and starting to draw comb.

Once they have started to build comb you can replace the QE and they will pass through without a problem.
Dont leave it longer because she will be up there like a shot given the chance to lay in fresh comb.

 

[FROGDOGDIVER]

Excellent ill give it a shot. Well if this rain would stop bucketting down