Drone cells and honey quantity

[hoku]

Has anyone else had this experience??? 

I checkerboarded one of my honey supers with 6 frames of foundation sheets and 4 frames of foundationless(with 2 cells of comb from previous harvest still attached as starter--I crush and strain).  The bees drew out the foundationless beautifully, except it was ALL drone comb. 

When I harvested this honey last week, I found the drone comb was a bit thinner(wasnt drawn out widthwise) and held less honey, even though it was all capped.  Id say about .5 lb less than the frames that had full sheets of foundation.  So I got less honey than I expected I would. 

So, Is this what I should expect if I continue to go foundationless or is this just a seasonal whim of the bees to not drawn out the comb and store as much.  Thanks for your feedback!

[BjornBee]

Is it really drone comb, but for the fact that it is a larger size? Or is comb intended for honey storage that size anyways?

And yes, I have seen bees stop filling cells with nectar and cap it over less than they normally would. Probably a stoppage in flow or a seasonal thing.

[Michael Bush]

I'm with Bjorn that the thickness is simply a matter of the flow or the room to the next comb, and not related to the diameter of the cells.  The diameter is related to the purpose for which it was drawn, and honey storage cells are often drawn larger than worker cells.

[Brian D. Bray]

I agree with MB and Bjornbee on that bees will stop drawing comb and cap it short when the honey flow stops.

Beyond that, there a 3 basic sizes of comb in a hive, brood comb (the smallest), drone comb (medium), and storage comb (largest), that can be of varying size from slightly larger than drone comb to as much as twice the size of drone comb.  Often when bees go back and repair or replace portions of broken comb they will make storage comb.  Most beekeeper's think it is drone comb because it is larger than brood comb, while at the same time making the comment "it's  pretty big drone comb."

[hoku]

Wow, I didnt know that about storage  comb!  That was probabaly what it was because it was REALLY big.  ALso, I did have some starting and stopping in the nectar flows(I think), so that could be why they capped them.  Thanks so much for all the feedback.....

I am thinking now that it was mainly just nectar flows that accounted for the lower quantity of honey that I got from these frames.