Drone foundation strips

[Cindi]

Oh brother, I checked my colonies last week.  It appears that the plastic frame foundation that my husband cut out the plastic foundation on is being made into drone comb.  Has anyone else had experience with this?  I can't see the use for so much drone comb, honestly, what use is that much drone comb?  Any comments on what to expect next?  Have a wonderful day, great health and life.  Cindi

[Mici]

if those starter strips were the first you put in, it's ok. i got just as scared in the spring.
first two comb were ALL drone brood. later, they started making mixed or even ALL worker comb. so...don't get frightened.

[Scadsobees]

They will do that for foundationless or starter strips.  They also do that when drawing honeycomb in supers.

You can freeze it when they cap the drones, or move it to the outside when they fill it up with honey.  This is one of the biggest problems when not using foundation.  It takes a while to get used to.  Once they have enough drone comb, they will draw regular comb.

In the wild they draw all worker comb until they reach a certain point, then they will draw drone comb.  In the modern hive we only give them worker foundation, so they have all worker comb and no place for drones except in burr comb.  When we drop an open frame in there, they draw what they need which is usually drone comb.

I have some in my honey supers, and the queen will cross 3 boxes of honey capped and uncapped to lay drones in 1 or two frames...

Rick

[Mici]

In the wild they draw all worker comb until they reach a certain point, then they will draw drone comb. 

they will do the same if you treat them the same. a swarm will much more likely build you what? 10 frames of pure worker brood before even starting to think about drones.

[Cindi]

Hmmm.  I can see the bees' desire early in the season to draw lots of drone, but we are getting half way to the end of the summer.  Drone brood does not make any sense to me at this time of year.  Oh well, let the bees be bees, they know what is up better than we human.  Have a wonderful day, great life.  Cindi

[Michael Bush]

>It appears that the plastic frame foundation that my husband cut out the plastic foundation on is being made into drone comb. 

They will build drone comb until they reach the threshold they've been wanting all along and then they will go back to drawing worker comb.  They know when to stop.