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I've only used chamfered bars in the honey area, so their going off-course only slows me down during harvest. (I rarely inspect the brood nest, since we have a windowed hive.) I typically wait 'til...

They start on one side of the chamfer, then for the last few inches they curve the comb so it's fully on the chamfer. My girls also do not maintain bee space between combs, which allows them to make...

My girls like to use just one side of the chamfer, so the combs are pretty straight, but I still can't rearrange combs easily.

central Colorado: 1 hive
30lbs of honey plus about 1.5lbs of wax in July. (Hive was supered.)
Colony has 22 bars total, 6 of which are honey (so no less than 30lbs in stores).

We went into last Winter like this:
hhBBBBBBBBBBBHHHHHHHH

The little h's represent the two combs near the entrance that are used primarily for honey. We had 11 brood combs and 8 pretty full honey...

Sounds like the one hive is honey bound. The queen only wants to lay in the brood area, and at just 6 combs it isn't particularly large. The bees think that 2 combs of honey is all that particular...

In my experience (and I'm only in my 2nd year), a few bees will keep visiting the feeder when a nectar flow is on, but it takes so long for them to empty it that the syrup starts to ferment. They...

Hmmm... my combs are never perfectly straight but they fit perfectly together like puzzle pieces. I would not be able to switch direction of every other comb, even if I wanted to. I've read that one...

Once you start, you can't stop until they are getting the real thing on their own. If you stop and there is not a nectar flow, then you've forced them to build up and then let them hang out to dry....

I have a small hive that is supered. My hive is maxed at 22 bars, and our Spring buildup was fast and strong. A split was not an option so I dropped a warré box on top, over the existing honey...

Here's my 2cents. Splitting an already incohesive colony... I wouldn't do it.

As a 2nd-yr beekeeper, I spend hrs everyday in the various forums trying to glean bits of knowledge here and there....

http://www.backyardhive.com/Articles_on_Beekeeping/Articles_on_Beekeeping/Brood_Nest_Top_Bar_Hive/

They will definitely use combs from other bees. My first colony failed, and I started again with a package on the old combs. They took to it happily. Some of it was honey comb, though. You can spray...

I'm in the school of thought that a newly installed colony should be left it's honey crop the first year. After the Winter of 09/10... i.e.: next Spring... is when you can take whatever they don't...

Thanks for the reply, Cacklewack. This one was on the landing board and is now inside the hive, thanks to me poking it. I just feel awful about that. We'll be conducting our 2nd inspection in a few...

I saw an earwig run into my hive this weekend and have just found through Google that earwigs are "known to invade beehives and eat honey." :eek: How worried should I be?