Will bees build comb in supers without having foundation .

[thomast55]

Like I said I am new to this and will be asking alot of stupid questions . Will bees build comb in supers that dont have sheeets of foundation in them ?

[Robo]

Yes they will, but without proper guides and keeping a watchful eye,  you can easily end up with a mess.  Especially in honey supers where they will overdrawn the comb into the adjacent frame space.  The safest way to get natural comb is to insert an empty frame between 2 drawn out frames in the brood chamber.

[babathemba]

What has worked for me is to put 10 top bars in a honey super, each of which has about 1/2" of foundation attached to it (instead of a full sheet.)  This gives the bees a starting point and they build the comb downwards from there.

[hardtime]

well i been thinking on this to. in my supper this year 10 top bars i put one full sheet then haft then full then haft. to see witch one thay fill up first.i want things fast .

[Robo]

i want things fast .

Then your best bet is to buy permacomb or Honey Super Cell.

[Kathyp]

i want things fast .

you are on bee time.....they'll give you what they give you.  :-)

i had good luck with the starter strips, but the comb is fragile until it is completely attached.  so far, i have not found that they built from the strips faster than from full sheets.  the main advantage was the savings in cost.  one sheet gave me many strips.

[tillie]

hardtime,

i put one full sheet then haft then full then haft

When I put in half sheets the bees chewed it up.  When I used 1/2 inch starter strips they built lovely comb.  It is fragile unless they fasten it well to the bottom and I did have a mess in one hive who built crazy comb.  When I cut it off and rubber banded it in to the frames and inserted some frames with full sheets of foundation, they finally got the idea.   My other two hives built beautiful comb from strips or just from remnants of comb from the year before.

Good luck (I love Abingdon - spent many summers at Camp Sequoya there ).

Linda T in Atlanta

[Scadsobees]

The trick is to add foundation during a flow.  It all works reasonably well, it is still not as nice as using plastic foundation.

They draw out my foundationless frames as drone comb, and it works well, I just have to keep the queen out of there, she will crawl through filled/capped/open honey supers to lay in drone comb.  They will even empty out capped drone comb filled with honey to lay drones in there.

Rick

[tillie]

I think the bottom line is that bees build (draw out) comb when they need it and they draw out the size that they need. 

If they need drone comb, that is what they draw out.  If they need brood comb, they draw much smaller cells. 

In addition, where you place the starter strips or foundation also affects what kind of comb they draw.  If you place the frame with starter strips or foundation in the brood chamber or in the area where the queen is laying, the bees will draw out brood sized comb.  If it's on the edge of the brood chamber, they are more likely to draw out drone comb.

If you place the frame with the starter strips or foundation in a honey super, the bees will draw out larger cells for honey. 

If you are using starter strips for the first time and your bees have been raised on 5.9, then the brood cells they draw out at first will be larger than "small cell" but as you continue to add in starter strip frames to the brood area, they will draw smaller and smaller cells until they reach what THEY want.

Linda T in Atlanta, speaking, I hope, from what I've learned from Michael Bush

[thomast55]

The thing is everyone that I talk to says that they want the chunk honey . I was watching Linda's video about  proccesing chunck honey and it seems to me that you would have to have 100% pure comb . Am I right ?

[Robo]

The thing is everyone that I talk to says that they want the chunk honey . I was watching Linda's video about  proccesing chunck honey and it seems to me that you would have to have 100% pure comb . Am I right ?

Chunk honey is made from thin surplus foundation.  Same as comb honey.

[tillie]

Or no foundation - I often use the frames with remnants of comb from the previous year and the bees draw gorgeous white, soft comb for cut comb or chunk honey.

Linda T in Atlanta, wishing for honey season

[Brian D. Bray]

The trick is to add foundation during a flow.  It all works reasonably well, it is still not as nice as using plastic foundation.

Bess will build comb faster then, yes.

They draw out my foundationless frames as drone comb, and it works well, I just have to keep the queen out of there, she will crawl through filled/capped/open honey supers to lay in drone comb.  They will even empty out capped drone comb filled with honey to lay drones in there.

Rick

You can get them to draw normal or small cell on foundationless frames by placing the frames on the edges or in the brood nest.  If you just put in a bunch of foundationless frames they will start with storage comb to start with, then draw some brood comb and mix drone comb into it.  They will usually start drawing the frames in the center of the hive 1st.  After the get 2-3 frames well along move them and put new frames into the center and they'll draw brood comb.

[Ross]

I use the center one these days, and that's all I use. 
http://www.myoldtools.com/Bees/frames/sled5.jpg
http://www.myoldtools.com/Bees/frames/frameb.jpg

Here's how I do it.  I can do a 100 top bars in 15 minutes or so.
http://www.myoldtools.com/Bees/frames/