Funny one-sided comb building

[tillie]

I opened one hive today to find that in the second box, they have built comb in the first 2/3 of all of the frames and ignored the rest of the frame space.  This was true in 10 out of 10 frames.



The hive is level on my deck which is level - what would be the explanation?

Linda T in Atlanta

[buzzbee]

Rotate the boxes 180 degrees?Maybe this is the end closest to the openings.

[wvbee]

I had this same thing happen last year.  I did just what buzzbee mentioned, and it worked.

[tillie]

The side on which they are building comb IS the side closest to the front entrance.  These bees also had a rear entrance because I was using an upturned bottom board for the top of the hive.  Now I have replaced the upturned bottom board with an inner cover and a telescoping top. 

I'll try turning the box 180 degrees and see what the result it.....

Aren't bees the most interesting creatures!

Linda T

[Brian D. Bray]

I've made reference to this tendency in other posts.  You have bees that prefer the back part of the hive.  To properly reorient the bees and get them to draw out the frames rotate the box 180.  You'll probably have this problem with this hive with each super of empty frames you install in it, whether brood box or honey super.  Putting in a couple full frames of comb in the super when it's put on can also help over come this problem.  You'll find, in time, that other hives prefer the left, right, or front.  The solution is always the same--move the frames to force the bees to build out.

[JordanM]

I have the same problem. Now i know how to fix it, this week i will rotate my box.

Thanks