Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Queenbe on July 10, 2012, 01:03:13 AM

Title: Brown comb in a new hive?
Post by: Queenbe on July 10, 2012, 01:03:13 AM
These are our hives. I built the "cottage" roofs for the two end hives. They are open on the inside, up to the roof peak. We added the second deep super and the cottage roof on the hive on the right about a month ago. There is no inner cover. Since then, the bees have been making comb in the peak of the roof, and none in the super.  :-x The cells of the comb seem to be much larger than the cells that they make in the foundation/frame. It appears that there is only nectar in these cells - no signs of eggs, larvae, or even pollen. And in the three or four weeks that this comb has been there, nothing has been "capped".

About a week ago, we noticed that some of the comb in the middle of the roof was dark brown and looked kind of dry and crusty. Any ideal what is causing this comb to be so odd looking?  Thanks!!


Here is a picture:

(http://s10.postimage.org/64t2lyfxh/bee_boxes.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/64t2lyfxh/)

(http://s8.postimage.org/p923o6ho1/brown_comb.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/p923o6ho1/)


Title: Re: Brown comb in a new hive?
Post by: Hemlock on July 10, 2012, 10:12:00 AM
Hi Queenbe, welcome to the forum.

The brown stain looks like regular brood comb from the picture.   

Do the two white hives have inner covers?
How many times have you looked into the green hive since you put the cottage lid on?