Comb Management

[topbarguy]

Greetings,

Last year I started a little test concerning comb management. My bees would construct straight comb towards the front of the hive in the broodnest area. But they weren't so neat about it in the honey storage area toward the rear of the hive. So I have tried two methods to get more straight comb.

With the first method, I would take a few empty top bars and inserted one of them between two broodnest combs. The bees centered the comb, but when a good flow was on, they build as much brace comb as they did normal comb. I ended up cutting most of the comb out to correct it.

With the second method, I shift the entire broodnest toward the rear of the hive about 4 to 6 top bars. Then I rotate empty top bars from the rear of the hive toward the front of the hive.

I like the second method. The bees propensity to finish out the broodnest toward the front of the hive is strong. And combs with the typical broodnest architecture continue to be built there.

This process has been repeated twice with the same results. The original center of the broodnest (top bars 3,4,5) with its straight comb is now two-thirds of the way toward the back of the hive. Normally, my bees construct the honey storage comb in this area.

I have also moved a few "unacceptable" combs to the rear of the broodnest. Eventually these combs will end up at the rear of the hive and be harvested at the end of the season.

Regards
Dennis

[topbarguy]

Greetings,

One of my tbhs wanted to swarm a week ago. At that time I just moved the broodnest toward the rear of the hive about 6 bars. And placed the empty top bars from the rear of the hive toward the front of the hive.

Today, I worked that tbh. I had planned to cutout any queen cups/cells to prevent swarming. But I was surprised to see that the bees had changed their minds. Only a few remanent cups were found and these were unoccupied.

This is only one hive and one instance, but I would normally have to cut cells for the next two weeks to prevent swarming.

Could moving the broodnest to the rear be an effective anti swarming treatment for a tbh?

Regards
Dennis

[Scot Mc Pherson]

I am not sure, BUT my broodnest is in the front of the hive, and the bees of my strongest hives cluster in the front in the afternoons of the hotter days. Perhaps moving the nest top back allows more bees to enter the hive and NOT be a hindrance to airflow since they aren't all crowded in the front brood nest. On the other hand, bees normally place brood closer to the entrance with a small layer of honey between the entrance and the brood. I think its for insulation of sorts and I also see the smae thing in my TBHs. The 1st and sometimes 2nd comb being almost entirely honey stores. If I remove the honey to the back the bees will fill the 1st combs with honey as new bees emerge. I think perhaps having some large cell uncapped honey might be a good thing for heat management and swarm prevention.