What should a person do if the bees are drawing out comb, but it's not a good pattern, or the way you would perfer it. My bees are drawing out the comb, very nicely in some hives, but a couple of hives are really a mess. I hate to cut the comb out of there and make them start over, but the way it is now, I won't be able to separated about 4 of the frames as they are all connected every which way.
Cut it out and fix it for them. Use rubber bands to stick in the frames right. If it don't have brood in it, I tend to just toss it. If honey, I chew on it right there if there is not to much.
also double check that your frames are pushed tightly together. to much space gives them a chance to get creative :-D
Use foundation..... :D :D
come on now....they will draw wonky comb on foundation too.
Too much space between the frames even with foundation, and they will double the foundation with comb and make a mess to throw out.
The frames are tight together. The problem is they are new and there is some room between the undrawn foundation. I think I'm going to cut out the bad stuff and hope they do it right the second time.
Look into starter strips in your frames to help the bees out.
I would take the 4 frames out and replace them with new frames and foundations then cut the messed up stuff and put new foundation it them to use later.
Tim Adams
so do you support the idea of 9 frames in a ten frame box?
Change over to 9 frame only after the frames are drawn out with wax in with 10 frames. (Been there, redone it later). They will screw it up with too much bee space between frames.
good to know thanks
Always 10 frames in brood boxes.
9 frames of drawn comb in honey supers only, then evenly spaced.
Now if only she used foundation... oh, I guess she did use foundation... Some bees just don't want to draw straight comb. Sometimes it's plastic foundation. Sometimes it's just the bees. Others won't mess things up no matter how much you mess it up...
But frames tightly together is the first hint...
Dug up this old topic because I spent the day working my bees and I am disgusted with so many of them. Crazy comb everywhere. Some hives are perfect some screwed up. No reason. I scraped off comb and told the queen to hire some new engineers.
Steve
Did your frames have foundation or starter strips?
>so do you support the idea of 9 frames in a ten frame box?
http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#framespacing (http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#framespacing)
http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#messedupcomb (http://bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#messedupcomb)
http://bushfarms.com/beesframewidth.htm (http://bushfarms.com/beesframewidth.htm)
I use foundation and put 10 frames in a 10 frame box and jam them together. The foundation is wax coated. Like I said, some will be crazy and some will be perfect.
Steve
Mine did that to last year. I just scraped off the odd stuff and they then they drew out the frame like I wanted them to. Their just like my ten year old. He always has to try it his way first.
I am also having problems with this crazy comb business for two of my frames of brood. I have been hesitant to scrape off the comb as I don't want to kill all the brood. I have moved the two connected frames over slightly to try and dissuade the queen from laying there, but should I just go ahead and scrape everything off now?
What to do depends on specifics. What is "crazy comb"? Are we talking about a lot of cell size changes and transition comb (cells that are oddly shaped between small and large comb)? Are we talking about the fins they sometimes build out at right angles to the comb? Are we talking about those parallel combs out from the face that leave a hidden space behind them? Are we talking about combs that aren't in the frames? The solution varied depending on the issue.
Quote from: Michael Bush on May 25, 2011, 02:32:32 AM
Are we talking about the fins they sometimes build out at right angles to the comb? Yes, Rows that are right angles.
Are we talking about those parallel combs out from the face that leave a hidden space behind them? Yes.
Sometimes both of the above on the same frame.
Steve
So I tried to post a picture but it didn't come up. The cell sizes seem normal I think, but there were two undrawn frames next to each other and it seems that they were getting a little creative. They built comb connecting the frames and sheets at odd angles, maybe like you said fins. I didn't see anything that looked like what I imagine a swarm cell would look like but I really am very new to this whole process. There did seem to be some drone cells, but I hear this is normal in the springtime?
(http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/8026/crazycomb.th.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/600/crazycomb.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
Yep, that is the crazy comb that I am talking about.
Steve
I've been seeing that kind comb build on the outside frames of a 10 frame box on ez frames. One side of the frame is good while the other side has that squirrely comb. I've been cleaning off the brace comb, hiding places etc. on wild side then placing it in between to acceptable drawn frames. so far so good. I'm moving to wood frames using starter strips and some with plastic foundation. either are placed between two drawn