My Bees Don't seem to Like Ross Rounds

[MooreHoney]

Hi,

I was wondering if I was doing something wrong with my Ross Rounds. I added them almost a month ago as the second of 4 supers. The super above and below are now 75% filled. The only thing that the bees have done with my Ross Rounds is begin to start eating some of the foundation. Other than that I could not see any progress at all. Any thoughts or advice on this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[ScadsOBees]

Take off all supers except the Ross Rounds super. Sometimes you need to force them to use it. Sometimes they need the extra restrictions before they start drawing out the comb honey.

But you have to watch them make sure that they don't get congested and swarm.

[Jim Fischer]

Bees, given a choice, will always work a box of drawn comb first,
frames of foundation second, frames of starter strips 3rd, and
comb honey supers (Ross Round or Hogg Cassettes) DEAD LAST.

One stacks nothing but comb honey supers on a colony, and this
is after "compressing the bees" a bit by (as I would do) removing
one of the 3 or 4 mediums that make up the brood chamber to
reduce the total space available to the bees. Often, one must
shuffle some combs to get this done, as there may be some brood
in the box you want to pull off.

If you mix normal supers with comb supers, the bees will ignore
the comb supers, as they certainly are "harder work".

[Ted n Ms]

Bees, given a choice, will always work a box of drawn comb first,
frames of foundation second, frames of starter strips 3rd, and
comb honey supers (Ross Round or Hogg Cassettes) DEAD LAST.

Jim i am confused some members seem to think that bees will work emty frames or starter strips quickley. Now i don't know just what i read on the fourm.:confused: I have always used sheets of foundation.

[Ted n Ms]

Jim writes
Bees, given a choice, will always work a box of drawn comb first,
frames of foundation second, frames of starter strips 3rd, and
comb honey supers (Ross Round or Hogg Cassettes) DEAD LAST.

Jim i am confused some members seem to think that bees will work emty frames or starter strips quickley. Now i don't know just what i read on the fourm.:confused: I have always used sheets of foundation.

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm#cutdown

[Michael Palmer]

Any thoughts or advice on this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Get yourself a comb honey book. Get more than one, and compare authors' techniques.

Richard Taylor wrote one. So did Roger Morse, and so did Killion. All would give you some good ideas. I believe Killion still has the record for number of sections produced by a colony.

[MooreHoney]

Thanks for all the help. I was thinking that a main reason was becuase of the fact that the bees had other options. I like the bush farms idea to. So here is another question. If you put say 3 Ross Round supers on they would be forced to work them. Would this be effective?

[Bee Draggle]

As a general rule it is better not to mix Ross round supers with your regular honey supers. However, last year my bees completley filled two regular honey supers and they were still bringing in nectar. All I had left to give the bees was a Ross round super so I put it on underneath the two filled supers. The bees drew out the foundation in the Ross and completely filled it with honey. So from my experience you need a strong honey flow and force the bees to use the Ross. Once the Ross is filled you can put on another Ross or a regular super.

[Michael Bush]

About the closest thing you can do to "forcing" them is to crowd them up into the "rounds".

[Quint Randle]

I lucked out this year in this same manner. I have four hives and I picked the one that was strongest. I waited until their first super was about 90% full and then I put the Ross Round underneath that ... and bingo, it worked. It is almost full now and they are in the process of capping it now. Very exciting.

Quint

[alpha6]

Just be aware that you need to constantly be checking for swarming when using rounds...bees feel very crowded with them.