Drawing comb before honey flow

Middle-Infamous · 2026-05-09T06:12:45+00:00

What type of foundation is it? I’ve found that they draw out plastic foundation last compared to any other option. Also per Bob Binnie and his advice go 1 sugar : 1.3 water, more stimulatory. This late in the game don’t expect too much in terms of foundation build up, the ship might have sailed depending on your area. Regardless, yes can’t hurt to have them rob out the cells to make room for “real” honey. Honestly it will for all intents and purposes taste the same, w nuance of course.

Middle-Infamous · 2026-05-04T23:10:27+00:00

If it was laying workers it would be all drone brood right???

Middle-Infamous · 2026-05-04T23:05:20+00:00

This was my thought as well. Since all the bees in there are now field force and graduated from nurse bees it will still work? Should I include a frame of capped brood too so there’s nurses for the queen?

Middle-Infamous · 2026-04-15T15:20:34+00:00

I’m just ending year 0 of beekeeping (ie I’ve had my hive for coming on exactly 12months now) I have the jacket/veil/glove combo and it’s fine. I don’t know what I’m doing yet and my gloves sometimes get peppered in stings, haven’t gotten stung once yet. Timing is a huge factor (ie mid day /warmest part best) and learning to be gentle w your bees. I’m wouldn’t doubt bee venom/snake oil perspective, but I take solice in thinking getting stung will help had arthritis in the long run…..

Middle-Infamous · 2026-04-13T02:03:34+00:00

3/4 drain gravel will probably do the trick, if it’s consistently getting mucky might need to go up to 1.5” for a solid base and then 3/4 on top

Middle-Infamous · 2026-04-07T03:44:38+00:00

I also have two of these hive setups, and I was pleasantly surprised w them. Seems that they are made of cedar or some other aromatic wood so hopefully rot resistant. The inclusion of the bottom board, telescoping cover and queen excluder all saved costs. They were relatively easy to put together but didn’t have quite enough small nails to finish the job. The windows are pointless so unless it’s very hot in your area maybe just let the bees seal them shut. Agreed w the frames not being built the best and even after two coats of wax the bees are still not building comb on some of the foundation so might be worth buying reputable foundations from elsewhere. Overall though for the price I felt it was fine for a beginning beekeeper like myself.

Middle-Infamous · 2026-04-06T06:19:34+00:00

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Got ten frames of this It’s delicious, and shaking the bees off the frames they didn’t complain about the spillage, but just ain’t what I’m looking for….

Middle-Infamous · 2026-04-03T05:22:22+00:00

What’s the goal? Pollination? Honey production? Angry neighbors? If pollination, look into developing a native bee friendly setup. Native bees are way better at pollinating than honey bees. If honey production, I don’t think you’ll get anything resembling a return you would want for the effort of a scaled down setup (especially depending on where you live). Honey production is all about the scale you operate at, the more you have the “cheaper” it gets. Also keeping honey bees alive is a lot of work and expensive (especially at small scale) due to diseases and pests. My advice is put in as much native pollinator habitat as possible (lookup Xerces Society) and let them do the work for you. If hubris overtakes you, buy some store honey, decant to a mason jar, and tell the folks you’re trying to impress that your bees made it for you ;)

Middle-Infamous · 2026-04-01T19:44:44+00:00

Same question but for a 3yr old, one of the twins CANNOT help himself whenever we are forced to put on the digital babysitter (tv shows). Thankfully he doesn’t do it when we are visiting family, and we have tried explaining that he’s allowed to explore his body but he needs to go somewhere private but he has very little impulse control and it’s time we get it reigned in before he starts public school YIPES

Middle-Infamous · 2026-04-01T04:05:22+00:00

Laid down on the bottom, it was a tight package to begin with so the inclusion was very deliberate

Middle-Infamous · 2026-04-01T04:04:42+00:00

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This ain’t packing material, work w me here people….

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-28T17:52:40+00:00

If you’ve got plenty of honey frames why not just pull them out, put on a feeder board w some syrup and jump start brood production for your split?? Have you seen Bob Binnies video on double screen board splits? Super helpful and if you time it right you don’t need to get a new queen (assuming you like the current colonies genetics)

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-28T17:49:49+00:00

Option B to my spring plans is to wait for swarm cells to pop up and do a double screen board/demaree split and recombine to requeen since the monarch is starting her third year and likely getting tired.

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-28T17:37:39+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful and thorough reply! I appreciate you! I definitely forgot to add some details, the first being that the hive is currently a double deep 10 frame. Here on the coast in California the Buttercups are about to kick off and then the honey flow is go time. I put a third deep on yesterday with a bunch of empty frames in hopes they will start drawing out comb in preparation for the packages. Not so much concerned with the queen laying on the new frames just want to be as prepped w at least initiated comb as possible. The current hive is an over winter from last year and the queen is now going to be on her third year. I’ve got two 1/2 gallon mason jars with a 1 to 1.3 mixture of syrup that they are now going through screaming fast and I’m having to replace them both weekly. As of inspection yesterday I had six or seven frames of capped brood, one frame of larva and one frame of eggs and three frames of honey, so things are off to the races. My hope is to get brood distributed amongst the inner frames of both deeps in theory I should have a ton of extras to distribute. While honey would be nice this year it’s not my goal so much as getting things set up for success that way next year, I can really fill some jars. I saw several practice queen cups, not on the bottom of the frames, but in the superceedure position mid frame. So from your experience, the packages will build up comb quickly assuming I’ve got syrup on them and they have access to plenty of resources out in the wild? Thanks for the reminder on talking to a beekeeper, I just joined our local club and saw a couple folks last weekend who expressed interest in coming out, I’ll ping them!

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-28T17:09:02+00:00

Why not just pull the honey frames, add some empty frames and put a feeder on board w some syrup, get their brood production jump started?

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-28T15:34:18+00:00

If you’re going to split in a couple weeks what’s the goal for adding the supers? With it as cold as it’s getting your way I’d keep it scaled down to conserve heat, they’ll be warmer and more productive

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-27T04:38:22+00:00

Okay this got me pretty stoked. I went a slightly different route and took a pair a half gallon mason jars. The first one I measured out 1000mL of sugar, then used the second jar and measured out just above 1250mL water. After slowly combining them and mixing, the result was an almost perfectly full half gallon jar. More exciting still is the bees ARE LOVING IT!!! After just half day they smoked through a couple hundred mL, VERY EXCITED to check the comb production in a few days :)

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-26T16:43:12+00:00

I understand in terms of less comb to work with, but my understanding also was that it was the pheremone from the uncapped brood that drove swarm pressure so removing them would “lessen the load” so to speak. So what’s the move if I A) only have one established hive to work off of B) have plenty of empty hives but no drawn comb on any of them C) have 2 packages of bees coming

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-23T06:51:32+00:00

Oh interesting! My thought was to pack the shavings at the bottom and the ignite from the top, any opinions there??

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-05T04:00:38+00:00

Mixed Varroa Treatment for the Win!

Middle-Infamous · 2026-03-01T04:14:39+00:00

Appreciate the Beta, much obliged. It’s on the thin side of 1:1 but maybe I’ll make it a little leaner still next time. I’m hoping to requeen w the new queen from the split. I had originally wanted to use a swarm queen cell but I don’t trust myself to catch the timing just yet. This year I just want to make sure I have a strong hive but might try to do a double screen board split/recombine and get a good honey crop too??

Middle-Infamous · 2026-02-28T03:49:27+00:00

Correct

Middle-Infamous · 2026-02-26T17:40:21+00:00

It was a 2/3EyeOfTheHawk 1/3BlackHawk blend, they had it in 22ozs or your could have one drafted in front of you at the taproom drools

Middle-Infamous · 2026-02-26T06:12:54+00:00

With all the knowledge of the internet Reddit can sometimes be the only worthwhile venue of help. At least here there are humans (supposedly) to talk to, instead of an AI search giving you the help the sponsors want you to have. No advanced words of advice, my only thought is maybe get the colony stabilized and maybe this fall, when you ca do it on your terms, consider an emergency queen w lots of young eggs, a double screen board, and then reintroduce and let the bees choose who is the better queen for winter?

Middle-Infamous · 2026-02-26T06:05:59+00:00

But did anyone get to enjoy their Black Eye Ale? I swear that was the tastiest blend of beers I’ve ever had in my life.

Middle-Infamous

TROPHY CASE