I need help asap!

[Dracono]

my new swarm is building the comb the wrong way.
How do I get them to build the way of the bar instead of across all of the bars at one time?

Okay a little history for you all first.
I have 9 top bars all measuring 20 inches. and for the guide I used the stretched cotten string  method with melted beeswax on it.
one person told me to put them into a langstroth frame and put them back into the hive. my box will fit the medium frames. should I do this? If so how should I go about doing this as this is my first hive and swarm ever?
thanks for all of your help.

[ccwonka]

I go somewhere in between foundationless and wax - I buy the thin (cut comb honey) foundation and break it into 1"-2" strips (it folds over and breaks easily without cutting) and use this in the top groove of a frame so that only a little sticks out, they always use it as a guide and it still means they are producing 99% what they want instead of using a prefab foundation.

Of course, now that I have said they always follow the guides, I will need to go check my hives to see which one is making a liar of me this week.

As far as your current situation, get the burr comb out right away . . . there is nothing to be gained in letting them establish it further, and the headaches down the road are monumental!  (speaking from experience).  If you don't have any wax around, I know lots of folks have had good success with using posicle sticks as starter strips.

[AllenF]

You might could take you bad comb they are building and glue to to your top bars the right was by melting a little wax and sticking it to the bars.  But you do need to clean it up as good as possible to keep them from doing it wrong again.

[deknow]

you need deeper comb guides.

if you have a table saw, cut some new top bars (or cut the bars one at a time while you swap them out of the hive), and put a slot in the middle of each one (along the entire length).

gule some popsicle sticks along the groove along the full length of each bar.

i know you weren't able to be at the conference in Oracle, but sam's talk (which includes a lot about top bar hives) is online for free:


deknow

[irerob]

   Can you just take out the comb thier building and reatach it the right way?