Because of a mistake which I made my bees built crooked comb across the frames instead of inside of them.
One week after putting my mail ordered package of honey bees into the hive I opened it up to see what had transpired. I wanted to check sooner but cold rainy weather prevented it. What I was hoping to find in there was lots of nice straight parallel comb built from the guides on the top bars of the frames. And that is probably what I would have found if I had followed Michael Bush’s advice to not put the queen cage inside of a foundationless hive or they would be likely to build crossed comb off of it. Maybe I’ll listen next time. This is the kind of mistake that rookies (like me) make.
After I cut the queen cage out and brushed off the bees you can see that they built in two different directions across the frames instead of parallel with the frames. Once they got started wrong they just kept building parallel with the initial crooked comb.
I rubber banded the combs into the frames, and twisted it all around as straight as possible.
There was probably about 3 frames worth of beautiful new comb (I hived the package of bees one week before) that were running across the frames, and when I opened the hive most of it collapsed. Plus about 3/4 frame total that they had built more or less correct. I hope that I got all of it right side up at least – I doubt it though.
That nice piece there on the right actually grew there – I banded it in to keep it from falling out while I worked on the crooked one that crossed right next to it. The dark areas of comb are pollen stores, and the cells above that are full of uncured honey. What I didn’t realize at the time was that most of the lower parts of the combs were already full of brood – eggs and baby bee larva.
I never spotted the queen – she wasn’t still in the queen cage though. I was careful and the bees were really mild so the carnage wasn’t too bad despite this being the first time I ever even saw the inside of an active bee hive. I did a fair amount of damage to some of the comb, but considering it was only a little bit more firm than biscuit dough I think I did alright for my first time.
A few days later I spotted some capped brood – 8 day old larvae which are in the pupal stage of development, like when a butterfly is in it’s cocoon. At that point I knew that the queen had been busy laying eggs.
At the rate they were going up till now I think that the 8 frame medium hive body they are in would’ve been full of comb in another week. I’m sure this is a speed bump at least, but I’m thinking I should check back in 4 days or so to make sure, and to try and find the queen. I hope this gets them going more or less straight.
Three days later I looked in to see how the repairs were going.
One of the frames of collapsed comb that I had to re-frame
Only three days later it looked like this:
Already attached and running straight – so far. When I rubber banded it in the comb was so soft that even being as careful as possible I did a fair amount of damage to it, but the bees got to work and fixed it all up.
There were some other frames that looked a little more lumpy but they were all attached well and expanded somewhat. It looks to me like that even with the set back they are building about 1/2 frame of comb a day.
I looked pretty hard, but still didn’t spot the queen (or eggs) , but I figure that in another 3-5 days I should be able to spot larvae if all is well.
I later saw some brood in the pictures that Shirley took during this inspection.
Photography again by my lovely and fearless wife Shirley who stood 15 feet away without a stitch of protective gear to take these pictures.
I THOROUGHLY ENJOY YOUR SITE.FACINATED WITH YOUR PROJECTS AND THE BEES ARE VERY INTERESTING.THANK YOU FOR SHARING.
ANNIE IN TEXAS
Thanks Annie – I wasn’t really sure how people would like this kind of thing on a gardening blog, but so far all of the response has been positive.
my father was one small time, honey more than enough for the family and he to sell around the place. me i’m allergic to them if they sting, nearly died once so i steer clear of hives.
the frames you use to provide space for the bees to set up the comb looks similar to dad’s but he had piano wire running through, his in a horizontal plane, and into that we had to feed honey comb blanks/sheets so the bees constructed the hive propery well for the purpose of
harvesting that is. the blanks ressembled the comb and where made from bees wax i imagined.
maybe the things are no longer available? just wondered if something like that would help alleviate the issue you presented?
i do try to attract bees into my garden as i need their services, but sadly in the ‘burbs bees are extinct for most of the time. modern gardeners have no room or space for flower growing probably no time either all gardens are geometrical that is plants that need little
care and only foliage.
any all for now
Most bee keepers still use the exact wax comb “foundation” that you are describing and it is indeed an aid in avoiding the crooked comb that I had. Although once I straightened it out one time they have done much better.
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There are several reasons that I’m not using foundation which all boil down to trying to help the bees cope better with varroa mites. You might not have heard but in the states these mites appeared (probably from Asia) about 15 years ago, and they have made life very hard on honey bees and bee keepers.
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Standard foundation causes the bees to build bigger comb – and the bees to actually be bigger, but the extra time that they spend as pupa growing into bigger bees exacerbates the mites – which reproduce on the pupal stage of the larvae. So allowing the bees to just build comb like they want to helps them to be more mite resistant. At least in theory.
I am a new beekeeper and I was just looking for a way to take the combs from my little top bar hive and install them in my new Langstroth hive. I love your idea of using rubber bands! It seems so much more managable than trying to “stitch” the combs. You have given confidence that I can actually do this without creating a disaster! I just went and bought a bunch of large rubber bands and am waiting for my new queen to come in the mail today. Thanks for your suggestion!
I don’t know if you should really try that this late in the season. Why don’t you want to just keep them in the top bar hive?
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Anyway, if you do decide to cut out your bees and put them in frames I’ve come up with a better way – put thumbtacks every inch or so on both sides of the top and bottom bars of the frames you will be putting the combs in, then stretch rubber bands from top to bottom on one side. Then after you lay the combs in the frame you can put the rubber bands on the other side to hold them in. Make sure they are in the center of the frame and parallel with it or they will still be wonky after the bees stitch them back. Good luck.
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BTW – http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php – this forum has lots of people who know way more about this than I do who are happy to give advice to beginners. You should check it out.
Small cell foundation is available. A section on bees belongs in every garden blog. Approximately 80% of our food is insect pollinated and bees do it best. So your bee segment is indeed appreciated. My dad kept bees when I was a kid and I too had a couple of close calls with death from bee stings. I went through 2 year series of shots to get my body to stop reacting to them that way and now don’t have to fear bees anymore. I will be adding bees to my garden this next spring as I have been having to hand pollinate. garden way/ storey publishing has a good home built honey extractor that leaves the comb intact so that the bees don’t have to use resources to remake comb. Thanks for your blog, come check out mine sometime, they compliment each other.
Since spying an article in “Birds and Blooms” about your $50 greenhouse, I have been reading your blog. I’m loving it! Since being laid off, I have researched different ideas of bringing in more money than unemployment alots. Your bee blog really inspired me to get on with it. Did you research your info and/or buy a how-to book?
I did quite a lot of research, but most of it was online. Actually the thing that got me started was randomly running across “Bee Keeping for Dummies” at the book store.
That book planted the seed of interest, but it just assumes that you will use the full range of therapeutic chemicals, while it also advocates some controversial use of commercial essential oil products.
The best source for information that I know of is Michael Bush’s natural honey bee keeping web site – http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm. Some of what he say is controversial, but if you used it as your soul source of information you would probably do fine.
Thank you!!! This was so helpful and made me feel more positive about repairing the damage of my poor installation.