I did an inspection on my hives this Sunday; one of them is just chugging along, and I think I may get a couple frames of honey in a few weeks even though it started from a nuc. (I'm gonna split this hive as soon as I see the oaks start posting pollen next spring, this is definitely my favorite queen.)
anyhow, maybe because I used a queen excluder (turned sideways) they decided to build some burr comb - vertically in between the foundationless frames. as I was lifting out the honey frames I broke the vertical comb. (lots of bees have begun chaining from the tops of the frames and they are working beautifully. I may need a second shallow before August.) the comb snapped off cleanly at the bottom and sagged over, being so new. There was also a little nectar in the comb. so I set it in front of the hive at the entrance so they could clean it up and maybe harvest the wax. nope, as the pic shows they started affixing the wax to the outside as if it belonged there so I went back and attached it to a frame, removed an empty near the outside and refitted this frame near the middle.
(http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6443/burrcomb1.th.jpg) (http://img195.imageshack.us/my.php?image=burrcomb1.jpg)
(http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/5323/burrcomb002.th.jpg) (http://img192.imageshack.us/my.php?image=burrcomb002.jpg)
I couldn't come up with rubber bands so I used string, if the bees haven't removed it by next week I can cut it out myself.
Looks like a good job and you used info you learned on the forum. Feels good to get a mistake corrected correctly doesn't it?
Quote from: Brian D. Bray on June 02, 2009, 01:16:42 AM
Looks like a good job and you used info you learned on the forum. Feels good to get a mistake corrected correctly doesn't it?
I couldn't even guess how many books I would have to wade through, and experienced hands I would locally have to pester for the years' worth of information on this site.