Feral bees

[jimmy_in_texas]

I live in the country but work in the city of Houston, around the end of May I was told about some honeybees living in an old wooden cable spool in the field behind our company, sure enough they were there, I've always wanted some bees but just never bothered to start keeping any, however I've read enough to know these probably wouldnt survive on their own living in that thing, It was pretty much starting to rot away. The combs were not visible because they were living in the round center hollow part.

basically I brought them here to the country and placed a new hive body with foundation on top of this spool and waited for them to move up into it, well after 3 weeks, they hadnt budged, (I did not have a bottom board on it so they could move freely into the frames, I even sealed all openings to force them thru the hive on their way in and out but no good.

Finally I decided to tear the spool apart and wire the combs into frames with no foundation, one morning I got up, got my tools ready, dressed up, and removed the comb sections in as complete pieces as I could, these I wired into frames with no foundation at  the tops of the frames, I think I got 5 frames that had comb roughly half way down, the bees werent too bad during this ordeal but I think I got stung maybe 10 or so times, not too big a deal.  I closed up the hive body and they seemed to settle in nicely,  I started feeding sugar water outside the hive but had to quit because some serious robbing began and there was much fighting at the hive.

I didnt want to disturb the hive body to make room for a feeder so I placed a second hive body on top of the first with foundation and a frame feeder to stop the robbing and to hopefully cause the bees to draw comb, its almost the end of July and they have increased their population a lot and go thru a gallon every 2 days, there are so many bees now they mass outside the hive at night and still refuse to draw comb even though I feed them non-stop,  also about 3 weeks ago all drones suddenly just disappeared. I'm afraid they will swarm soon if they dont have comb, the top hive body has many bees just sitting on the foundation doing nothing.

any advice would be appreciated, I read that wild comb has smaller cell size than standard foundation, could this be part of the problem?

Thanks,

Jimmy

[Bennettoid]

Give them some time, they may still be working on the lower frames. They'll draw it out when they need it.

[JP]

Jimmy, they haven't drawn out any comb, or just not in the 2nd hive body you added?

[jimmy_in_texas]

They havent completely filled out the first brood chamber, one frame on the end is still just foundation, I sure learned a lesson the other day, I pulled that frame out to take a look at it, and it was pretty much covered with bees even though there was no comb on it, as soon as I lifted it out of the hive all the bees on it took off and proceeded to sting my arms and legs since I had shorts on, I always wear a veil because I do not want any stings near my face, I dont think I'll pull any more frames that dont have comb,

I wonder if they will add on to the feral comb that I wired in and completely fill the frame or leave it rounded on the bottom like in the wild since theres no foundation there? should I try to gradually remove these over time and replace with foundation?

another battle Im fighting now is those nasty hive beetles, I treated the ground, put 2 traps in the hive, and have a strip of check-mite on the floor covered with cardboard, I have only seen small ones about 1/8" long and pretty sure its a light infestation, I've read these bugs can smell a hive for miles, a few times just before dark I've seen 2 or 3 flying in the entrance and crawling in, the bees try but cant stop them. most every day I see a couple of small dead ones on the ground in front of the hive, I really dont like using any poison but I wanted to make sure they didnt destroy my hive, Looks like they always going to be attracted to the hive so I'm not sure what will happen when I remove the check-mite.

thanks everyone for any and all advice.

Jimmy