Encouraging bees to draw out comb (make wax)

[BeeLady]

This is the third year I've had my bees.  When I began, a neighboring beek gave me four medium supers of fully drawn comb so I could have a honey harvest the first year.  In addition, I now  have 8 shallow supers with foundation and no comb because I've only used my neighbor's supers with the drawn comb.

Due to drought in my area there has not been much  nectar flow and I am feeding syrup.  I have the drawn comb supers on my hives which had a frame or two of honey from the small flow we did have.  I'm using in-hive frame feeders in the brood chamber.

After reading an article in this month's bee culture abour queen excluders I removed my excluders yesterday when I fed again and added a shallow super with the foundation but no comb to each hive.

So now I have on each hive one brood chamber, an empty shallow super  that only has foundation and no comb, and then a medium super with drawn comb and maybe two frames of honey (which was probably made partly from the syrup I'm feeding.)

Is there anything I can do to get these bees working on the shallows drawing out the comb?  Will I disrupt their  activity by adding these empty non-drawn Supers?

[Brian D. Bray]

>>Is there anything I can do to get these bees working on the shallows drawing out the comb?

Place the shallow super between 2 of the mediums--this will encourage the bees to fill the "empty" space by drawing comb.

>>Will I disrupt their activity by adding these empty non-drawn Supers?
If anything it should increase the activity.

[Brian D. Bray]

>>Is there anything I can do to get these bees working on the shallows drawing out the comb?

Place the shallow super between 2 of the mediums--this will encourage the bees to fill the "empty" space by drawing comb.

>>Will I disrupt their activity by adding these empty non-drawn Supers?

If anything it should increase the activity.

[Doorman]

I assume your feeding light syrup.  put a medium with comb over the brood box and let the queen lay in it. when the eggs hatch put a shallow between the medium and the brood chamber this will draw young bees up to take care of the brood. they are also the bees that make wax and they will draw out the shallow.  also put a shim under your cover to create an upper entrance. as the young bees age into field bees they will use the upper entrance for foraging. in my opinion this speeds the filling of the supers.  It seems strange your only in one brood box this late in the season. Did you lose some to swarming?

[BeeLady]

What i usually hear is that in this part of Texas is the standard is one deep brood chamber.  It may have to do with that we never have much winter and brood rearing is done pretty much year round.  I am involved with the local bee club and seems that's what everyone does here, commercial as well as hobby.  I know elsewhere that two deeps are the standard.  The only person I know of that was using two deeps lost all her bees last year to fire ants.

I think I will instead try and gear up for 3 mediums or shallows to replace the deep so I can do some more manipulation and not worry about my back.  Any new hives I start I will use several shallows or mediums for brood.

Since I now have one deep, fully drawn and almost full, the empty shallow and the drawn out medium, it sounds like from what you and Brian indicated this should work.  I don't have enough fully drawn out mediums to put under and over my shallows.

But so far Im encouraged by your response.

[Hi-Tech]

Here in South Alabama, one deep or 2 mediums is the norm for brood chamber...

[Finsky]

Any new hives I start I will use several shallows or mediums for brood..

Use so much boxes as bees can occupye. Room is proper if the topmost box is not evenly filled with bees.

When it comes in honey there must be allways room for new nectar.

If you do not give room enough, hive will swar,

Just now one old beekeeper wrote in Finnish forum "Now 2 deeps is enough for normal hive".  I wonder what is normal hive and where?  My most hives has now 4 deeps and the smallest only one.  My hives overwintered with 2 deeps.