I introduced small cell starter strips yesterday!!!!!

[annette]

Well my dear beekeeping friends,

Yesterday was the day I finally introduced the small cell starter strips into my hives. I replaced 4 frames in each hive, mostly in the brood nest area, but also in the honey supers.

Wish me luck. Anyone know how long it will take before I can see them festooning and making wax combs?????

Annette

[Understudy]

The idea for small cell is to work with the brood. If you have put them in the brood section, then it depends on the the mood of the queen. If she is in a big time egg laying mood then they will build pretty quickly. If not it will take a few weeks.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Michael Bush]

If you put it in the middle of the brood and they didn't have enough bees to festoon immediately, then you probably are spreading them too thin.  If they are on the outside edge of the brood nest it won't be a problem.

[Scadsobees]

I don't know about the festooning part, but they should start drawing comb, it will start out small.  It depends too on your honey flow.  If it is slow right now, then they might not do the best.

And if the rest of the hive is drawn from foundation, don't be suprised when they draw out a lot of that as drone comb.

Rick

[annette]

That is what I am hoping for. That they draw a lot of drone comb, because I want to capture many mites this way. I will freeze the drone combs, then place the combs back into the hives.

Wish me luck

Annette

[Scadsobees]

That can be frustrating too...when they draw 1/2 a frame drone and 1/2 worker.....  then you can't freeze, you have to cut the drones out, but that works too, they will fill it back in, and the drones make good fishin' bait.... :roll:

All the drones really frustrated me when using starter strips to start out with.  Although the swarms did a lot better drawing from scratch.

And then there is the times I forget to take it out an all the drones and mites hatch out anyway :-x

I hope that it works as planned!!

Rick

[Michael Bush]

>All the drones really frustrated me when using starter strips to start out with.  Although the swarms did a lot better drawing from scratch.

They will "hatch" the same number of drones no matter what you do.

Levin, C.G. and C.H. Collison. 1991. The production and distribution of drone comb and brood in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies as affected by freedom in comb construction. BeeScience 1: 203-211.

The sooner you let them get it out of their system the less issues you'll have.  Once they have enough drone comb they will stop drawing it.