I am a new beekeeper with a struggling hive in a deep. Installed April 22 or so, lost the queen in about a week, supersedure queen now laying heavily. Three weeks ago, and again last week, they only had 4 frames drawn out (frames 2-5 in my little world).
Today I went in and there seemed to be a lot more bees, but they had only drawn out half of frame six. However, they had also drawn some comb above the frames straight up into the empty super above. This comb was located above frame two, where there is the most brood. Are they doing this to keep it warm, or do they not like that plasticell foundation?
I removed the plasticell from frames seven and nine (glued in the wedge to give the bees a guide). I then removed the extra comb from the empty super and rubber banded it into one of the foundationless frames. Anything else I should do?
I have the empty super so I can feed. They are going through their feed.
Remove the empty box...they prefer to build in any kind of empty space. If you're using it to feed, place the inner cover on the brood box and feed through the hole. Place your empty box on top of that.
Scott
Just be glad they started at the bottom and was working their way up. Sometimes they like to start on your inner cover and build some crazy layers of comb up there. I did have a hive this spring that started comb through the hole in the inner cover, from the top of the middle frame going up. I just scraped in off and added another super.