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  • From: Chris Cramer <chris.cramer AT gmail.com>
  • To: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Comb under the hive?
  • Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2017 10:29:31 -0400

Thanks Randall - good advice as always!

> On Jul 22, 2017, at 10:07 AM, Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Chris,
>
> Aren't honey bees interesting? They'll do all sorts of creative things.
>
> I would treat this comb as I would a regular cut-out. Carefully cut off
> each comb with brood from the top. When you come across the queen, safely
> set her aside. An empty matchbox makes a great impromptu queen cage --
> leave it slightly cracked open and the workers can service the queen inside.
>
> Lay the comb within an EMPTY frame (no foundation). Trim the edges as
> needed to make it fit. Wrap a few rubber bands vertically around the frame
> to hold the comb in place. Now put these frames in the hive.
>
> The bees will attach the comb to the sides of the frames and will
> eventually chew through the rubber bands and remove them. This comb
> probably won't be stuff you'll want to keep -- it may be a bit wonky -- so
> keep an eye on them and one day, when it is empty of brood and stores, you
> can remove them and melt down the wax.
>
> There are a millions ways to do this but what I've described has worked
> many times for me.
>
> Let me know if you have questions.
>
> Randall Austin
>
>
>> On 7/22/2017 9:41 AM, Chris Cramer wrote:
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> I could use some advice. I was recently doing a hive inspection and one
>> hive looks great, no problems there. The other hive was showing signs of
>> not having a queen, in particular, there’s at least one laying worker and
>> lots of spotty drone brood. I grabbed a frame of brood from my good hive
>> and put it in, in hopes that they would produce a queen. But then I
>> noticed that what I had thought was bearding under the screened bottom
>> board was actually comb. Today I got a slightly closer look at the comb
>> and it appears to have brood in a nice laying pattern.
>>
>> My guess is that the queen fell out during an inspection and couldn’t get
>> back in, but the workers started building her comb on the underside of the
>> hive.
>>
>> So now what? My thought is to remove the hive from the hive stand, put a
>> large bucket or container under the hive stand and give it a good thump on
>> the ground to knock all of the bees into the container, put them in the
>> main hive and sacrifice the brood that’s in the comb beneath the hive.
>>
>> Alternatively, I could cut out the screened bottom board and staple it
>> into a box in the main hive and hope they sort things out, migrating back
>> to the frames when possible.
>>
>> Thoughts? Any advice is appreciated
>>
>> thanks
>> -chris
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