entice bee to the honey super

[mixofsam]

Hi All,
Introduced my 1st package of bees into the hive on May 1st (Madison Wisconsin). At this point both brood boxes are full (and heavy). Last week I put on the honey super (just wax foundation) and sprayed a few frames with sugar water to maybe bring them up. This past weekend I checked and they are not drawing any comb. There are a few bees up there but obviously not showing much interest. I do have the queen excluder on there as well. Are there any other ideas on how to kick start drawing comb up in the super? I realize that the lack of nectar can stop wax production, but by the way the bees are coming in and out of the entrance it would seem they have places to go! I'm not familair with the nectar flow around my area (at least not yet).

Thanks,
Chris

[alpha6]

They usually won't pull comb through a queen excluder. I would pull the excluder and let them start pulling the comb. Once it gets started you can put it back on if you like. I personally don't use excluders and the pro's and cons have been gone over at great lengths on other forums so no need to re-visit that issue.

Good luck

[gmcharlie]

they also need surplus nectar and pollen.... our drawing has stopped here.....

[USCBeeMan]

Take one or two of the frames from the 2nd box and swap them with 2 empty frames in the super and leave the excluder in place. That only works if both boxes are the same size.