BBKA Forum

Which for me would be a bit of an issue as lots of drone comb may be useful some of the season but not the rest of it and as mentioned elsewhere bees seem curiously reluctant to store in it.

I use starter strips in new frames and run wax down the grove so the bees follow it down and build the comb straight. They can be slow to build on foundation as they can't cluster on it correctly like they can on strips. I also reuse last years heather frames which I have cut the comb out of. This leaves a nice starter in the top and sides for the bees to follow. If I have undrawn frames left I use them in winter prep. Just stick them in and bang loads of syrup in a feeder, they usually draw them out fine well into October. I then under super and have a lovely nice drawn super on each colony the following Spring ready to stick on top.

Cheers, Mick.

NigelP wrote: ↑

31 May 2019, 20:20

Alfred wrote: ↑

31 May 2019, 13:36

made a fantastic job on the various foundationless experiments I have concocted.

Yes...stop playing around with foundationless experiments.
Don't give them choices, force them to work what you want.

Its a battle of wills then.
The dead-out I had in the new year had three frames of undrawn foundation each side of the brood and zero stores.
If the previous keeper had made sure they were fed...
Surely the hippy frames they are drawing have more chance of being filled up so removing that possibility

Another way of looking at it is they prioritise filling empty voids they can easily cluster in.

After a few Millenia having to make best use of empty cavities, it’s not surprising that the advantages of pre-existing wired foundation takes a bit of getting used to.