will bees draw comb in fall?

[newguy]

will the bees draw comb on the plastic foundation from which i just scraped honey and comb if i feed them right now? or will they just fill whatever space they have in existing drawn comb? is it too late in the season for drawing comb?

[Brian D. Bray]

If you scraped the wax caoting off of the plastic you will need to remelt the wax and paint it back onto the plastic backing in order to get the bees to work it again.  With plastic foundation painting it with wax isn't a bad idea anytime.

[qa33010]

I've was informed last week they will not.  This was after I bottom supered to try and get them to draw some comb on a couple supers for winter and next spring.  I'm pulling honey off this week to process and will see if this is an absolute or a variable.  We'll see.

David

EDIT: I'm not using plastic though.  I don't think it will make a difference if they are recoated with beeswax as Brian said!

[Robo]

I doubt you will get them to draw comb this time of year in Maine.  Even if you feed them, the weather is not warm enough.

[Michael Bush]

I also doubt they will draw comb right now.

If you have plastic embossed foundation (Rite Cell, PlastiCell, Pierco etc.) then they will build it back up when they need comb again (probably next spring).  If you have smooth plastic with wax on it (Duragilt, Duracomb) they will NOT rebuild it no matter what you do.

[Finsky]

Bees will draw combs when I feed them for winter with sugar. BUT exrecition of wax consumes the protein store of wintering bees and that is not good at all.

When I feed bees with syrup and I put foundation on both side of fox to help ventilation, often they build foundations almost ready.

It enough work when they cap winterfood with wax and repair combs after extracting. There is no idea to burden them with comb building.

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