went into one of my overwintered hives today that was requeened about 3 weeks ago (2 regular hive bodies with good population of bees on drawn out frames and one drawn out super on top) .
The first frame I took out at inspection was a new frame put in at the same time as the queen was installed (because a couple old frames with bees and brood went with the old queen to a nuc).
This frame had about half of the foundation chewed/cut out by the bees. So it had about a 2 inch band of foundation going around the edge and a central empty section and the wires just going across empty of wax. This was a regular beeswax foundation frame they had only built up a small section of this frame (and that was filled with eggs).
Certainly there are other frames that I have where they will chew/cut out border sections of foundation and leave wax in the central areas, and I am not sure why they do that either, but this is the first time I have had them clearing out wax foundation from a frame in a rather wholesale manner.
Any wisdom as to why bees chew/cut out foundation?
thanks
I would say they must have needed it elsewhere in the hive.
The summer solstice has passed, the days are getting shorter, and the main flow is over in most areas.
Bees are about as frugal as one can be when it comes to protecting resources and only doing what is needed.
They take wax from areas they plan on not making comb, and mostly at this time of the year, use it to cap honey.
One of the HUGE benefits of plastic foundation is that bees will stop working it, and not have the ability to chew out the remaining unused section. When the flows stop and they stop making wax, they simply stop where they are. Next spring, they will continue drawing it out. And it also benefits foundationless comb since there is NO wasted foundation or replacement costs. The bees build till they stop and pick it back up next year.
Here is a picture of what tandemrx is talking about....
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x236/BjornBee/beepictures131.jpg)