Natural cell question

[R.L. Bee]

To start with I'll give some back ground information.Last winter I found A old hive that had bees in it, don't know how long they had been there.About two weeks ago I went to pick the hive up. When I got there I found it was upside down and the bees had built there comb on the bottom board. so I put it on the frontend bucket of my tractor and brought it home and turned it right side up at night don't want to do that again.I have left it alone, thought it would be better to let them get there house in order before I start giving them more work.Ok here's the questions. Shouldn't they already be on natural cell? So I can just add a box of 4.9 foundation.Another question I cut the end bars down to 32 or 33 mm wasn't precise because I used a wood rasp, will that work? Ok then when I cut the frames down that left me with a lot off extra space on the sides, do I add in another frame to make a 8 frame box a tight 9 frame box or do I use some kind of follower board to take up the space?

[Sundance]

The bottom board comb may be smaller. It
really depends on if the other frames have
foundation based comb in there. You will
have to crack it open to see.

You can cut out the present natural cell and
tie it into a new frame. Then feed small cell
into the brood nest.

The idea of cutting down the end bars is what
you have accomplished it sounds like. You want
9 frames in a 8 frame box or 11 in a 10 frame.
Add the 9th frame.

Good luck

[Michael Bush]

>Ok here's the questions. Shouldn't they already be on natural cell? So I can just add a box of 4.9 foundation.

Assuming they started off with bees from 5.4mm comb it's probably closer to 5.1mm.

>Another question I cut the end bars down to 32 or 33 mm wasn't precise because I used a wood rasp, will that work?

Sure. 1 1/4" (32mm) works the best, but they could be anywhere from 31 to 35 and work. 32mm just works the best. I've seen the bees build brood comb down to 30mm.

> Ok then when I cut the frames down that left me with a lot off extra space on the sides, do I add in another frame to make a 8 frame box a tight 9 frame box or do I use some kind of follower board to take up the space?

I put 9 frames in my 8 frame boxes and 11 in my 10 frame boxes. If you can't fit 9 in your 8 frame boxes then you didn't take enough off of the frames.

[R.L. Bee]

Sundance the frames that were in the box had no foundation .It had been there at least ten years without any bees.Thanks to everyone for the help!

[Sundance]

You found a gold mine. Just feed in SC into
the brood nest and you may get 4.9 on the
first draw if you are lucky (and it sounds
like luck is already on your side).