A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[Reinbeau]

Quote:

In this photo the bees are 'festooning'. They're building comb.

In this picture you've got a mess

. They obviously had too much room on either side or below that frame and built comb to fill the space. The concept of 'bee space' must be adhered to. no more than 3/8" space or they'll fill it with burr comb.

Are these medium frames in deep supers?

 

[cheraboo]

It's ok to leave it like that? Actually I guess so because if we remove it they'll just make more. I picked up a couple of beekeping books tonight to supplement what I already have. I wish we had started this sooner so we could take a beekeeping class.

 

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
As I asked above (I was editing my post to show the pictures better), are these medium frames going into a deep super? If they are, that's the problem, the frames leave empty space below and they'll definitely fill that space if they can. No, you can't leave it like that. Scrape it off before she lays eggs in it - probably drone eggs, but still, don't let them keep building a mess.

Just keep asking questions here, we'll help you out!

 

[cheraboo]

We've got medium frames in medium bodies. That comb is on one of the frames in the bottom body. Hmmmm..... Never dawned on mr before but there shouldn't be enough room for the bees to make that much comb. I guess we should open the hive up and pull out a few more frames to see how it's possible? I wonder if we did something goofy with the bottom board.

 

[Reinbeau]

Yea, see what's going on in that bottom box, because it surely looks as though they've got too much room below that frame.

 

[ChksontheRun]

actually looks like there is capped brood in the bottom picture.

 

[bibliophile birds]

Quote:
hahahaha. maybe the problem is that we don't read the books to them. i mean, books are awfully big, after all. maybe that will be my next experiment- i'll read a different bee book to each hive and see which one the bees agree with most.

 

[JP33]

Quote:
I agree with Ann. There for whatever reason is too much space below that frame.


...JP

 

[Beekissed]

What is the width of a typical comb structure if the bees are building their own comb?

 

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
They usually build two cells thick - in other words, back to back. But they can got a bit crazy if given enough room, as you can see. They usually build pretty straight comb, but once it goes off a bit, it can get really interesting. I've seen comb spiraled around in an unattended super. Google 'burr comb' and check the images to see what I mean.