Fat Nancy
04-07-2005, 09:55 AM
I have two hives, one brand new from mann lake with ritecell foundation. The other was given to me by a guy who didn't want to keep bees anymore. This old hive consists of a deep and 4 mediums. Some of the frames are in pretty good shape and there is some drawn comb (with some wax moth damage)I've heard that they will rework the comb. The rest of the frames I will need to replace the foundation (probably ritecell) I'm getting a couple of 5 frame Nuc's in May and I'm trying to figure out the best way to set things up. I plan to use 1 deep and a medium for the brood chamber. Should I put the medium with the drawn comb above the deep? or should I go with the one with new foundation since that is what will make up the rest of the 5 frames in the deep and then use the drawn comb for a honey super.
Hi Nancy, It sounds like the old equipment did not have bees. My 1st. concern would be how did the bees die. Unless you can be certain there are not foulbrood spores in the used frames I would not use them. Likely you won't find any larve that is viable so you need to have someone who knows what they are looking at check those frames.(Not someone who thinks they know but someone who really knows.) Your local bee club would be a good place to start. You should use your 5 frame nucs as the brood nest in a single hive body and then put your best frames in order on the outside filling in your foundation on the when you run out of comb. Don't add a 2nd story until the foundation is drawn out. You should then start out your 2nd story with a frame of drawn comb in the center, if you have it, to bait the bees up. The bees will not draw out the foundation until you have a good nectar flow going on. Good luck and make buckets of Honey! :cool: