Burr comb like crazy

[thomashton]

Ok, last Thursday I went through my two hives and cut out what seemed like pounds of burr comb. They were building bridges from the SBB to the bottom of the frames and then filling up the area between the top bars and the inner cover.

I hadn't been in there for two weeks or so, saw that they needed more room, so gave each another medium super to fill thinking that would do the trick and give them somewhere profitable to build.

Last night I cracked open the inner cover on one of the hives and there it was again, burr comb all over the top bars and filled with honey. They did begin building out the super I gave them, but why are they not putting all of their building efforts into the foundation and building burr comb.

My one thought, this new super, I put under two other full ones. If they want to build comb at the top of the hive, should I move this new on all the way up?

[Brian D. Bray]

Some colonies are just hell bent on building burr comb, it seems you are the unlucky recipiant of one.  I've found the best way to handle a hive with that tendency is just remove what is absolutely essential for what you are doing.  Develop the habit of turning each super a 1/4 turn before removing it from the hive to break the burr comb.  Then just harvest the burr comb in the fall along with the rest of the honey.
Otherwise you are going to experience an excercise in futility.

[Understudy]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#leaveburr

Sincerely,
Brendhan