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Any Honey-Super-Cell reviews yet?

31K views 98 replies 35 participants last post by  Michael Bush 
#1 ·
Anybody that has bought the new fully drawn frames from H-S-Cell got any opinions on the new frames? Been waiting for some comments before I shelled out some money. :confused:
 
#2 ·
They look like they are the same material and quality as the PermaComb. Very similar looking except that they include the spacer, they are deeps, and they are slightly smaller cells.

I put them in untreated in any way to see what would happen and haven't seen any progress yet, but then I haven't been watching closely. If they don't accept it straight I will try spraying with syrup and then if that doesn't go well I'll try rubbing a bar of wax on the surface of the mouths of the cells.

They are 4.9mm inside diameter, which makes them slightly bigger than I would like but still nicely small. I would prefer 4.8mm inside diameter and would accept 4.7mm inside diameter.

If it's smaller than 4.6mm I'm not sure how the bees will accept it.

Now if they would just make them in 4.8mm inside diameter, medium depth and 1 1/4" spacing...
 
#3 ·
I bought one case of them and placed them on the hives last week. I haven't been back to see how they are doing yet. I also had a swarm call, and placed a swarm on some, but again haven't checked to see how they are doing yet. They are quite heavey, and look to be well made, and I hope will last a long time, at the price paid for them, they should last a long time.
 
#4 ·
I went an checked one of the swarms I installed on these frames. The big thing that jumps out is it's really hard to see any of the younger brood in these cells. After being on these frames for two weeks, the queen has laid a fairly decent brood pattern on one of them, from what I can see, which ain't much. The bigger thing is they have filled alot of these frames with nector and pollen, and seem to prefer drawing foundation for the queen to lay in. I had another swarm that left a hive in which I had 3 of these frames in. Not sure if they are the reason, though.
 
#6 ·
Well. I put a swarm on four frames of HSC with one frame of honey in PC in the middle last Wednesday. When I checked it this morning there were about a hundred bees in the nuc. They had moved some of the old honey from the PC to the HSC and gathered a little nectar, but sadly, they had flown the coop.

The swarm I installed on five frames os HSC sprayed with HFCS yesterday was on the outside of the box this morning. None inside of the box, they covered the outside and were under it too. It was a massive swarm so I thought that perhaps it was too crowded for them so I got another nuc body and sprayed the five frames of HSC and shook the bees back into the box. Or at least I tried to. It turned into a chinese fire drill and they took flight.

Geez there was a bunch of bees in the air. Earlier I found a tiny swarm on the ground under the Oak tree. I put a two frame nuc next to it so they could walk into it. But the gigantic swarm in the air made them take flight too. Eventully they landed on the limb just over where the tiny one was earlier. Except now it was huge but I had to leave for work so I just set a nuc a few inches under it and hoped for the best.

Before leaving I looked under the nuc box where the large swarm came from and found a small clump of bees balling what I suposed was a queen. So I tossed it into the nearly empty nuc with the hundred bees on HSC.

When I came home the swarm in the tree was gone :( but in the redbud tree was an even larger one
on the trunk about twenty foot up :( So I set up three scaffolds that would make Darwin proud (except I tied it to the tree). I took one of the styrofome nucs with 3 HSC frames and two frames with wax from cut-outs way up there and started scooping bees off the trunk and into the nuc. I decided that there were way too many bees to fit in the nuc so I quit when I saw that they were fanning leaving a good three pounds on the tree. I took the nuc to the yard and opened it up, I was glad to see that they were not coming out.

I was tending to a cut-out I did this afternoon, a sloppy job of just vacing bees and stuffing comb into a bucket. I am sure that I lost the queen. Eh, no matter. On my way home I stopped and trimmed a tiny hive out of a bush that had two combs about the size of your hand. I had put it in a deep nuc and installed sc medium frames over it and set it next to the homeless and queenless bucket of bees when I noticed swarming again :eek:

I figured they were coming out of the just installed nuc, but no those were staying put. It was the bees that I left in the tree swarming into the nuc with the hundred bees and the balled queen! Wow, go figure!

So, what looked like this morning to be two refused HSC nucs turned out to be two very large and reinstalled swarms. Sometimes things work out no matter what you do.

The first nuc had one framd of honey and four HSC that was not sprayed.

The second one had five frames of HSC that was sprayed with HFCS (perhaps fermented?)

Both swarms left but were possibly overcrowded.

I'm not sold on the HSC yet, but it could be my fault for not giving them enough room.
 
#8 ·
I dunno yet. I expect that everything I pick up here in the city is ferral, so I would think that they should take right to sc as they came right off of it.

Until I can rule out that the swarms were too big for the box I was trying to put them into, or that the syrup may have been fermented, chasing them out, I can't really make the call yet.

I'm on my way to pick up another swarm that has been setting on a sign for five days, I'll see what they do.
 
#10 ·
I have the round entrance discs on all of my nuc boxes I use for pickups. I could easily have restricted them but am not in the habit because it has not been a problem.

I figure if they won't stay in the box, I need to find out why. So far this year, the only swarms that would not stay were either overcrowded or on HSC, but those on HSC are back in the box, one all by itself, the other needed help.

I picked up a small swarm today and put three HSC in the box sprayed with the majic elixor, (HBH) and a used PC on one side and a medium frame with sc from a cutout on the other. I will watch and see what they do, they were content this evening.
 
#12 ·
I just checked and all the HSC I have is being used by the bees now. It either has honey it in or brood in it. I did crowd them a bit to get them started on it though. I'd say you have the same issues as any plastic. It would probably have gone quicker if I sprayed it with syrup, but I wanted to see what they would do first.

Also, Max Hamby called me today to make sure I understood how to get it accepted. That's pretty good customer service.
He and Dee Lusby have been discussing the cell size issue. In order to get the mold to release the top of the cell has to be larger than the bottom. So the bottoms of the cells are actually 4.8mm while the mouth is 4.9mm. That would average out to 4.85mm i.d. which would be the equivelant to 4.95mm. That should be sufficient for varroa control. Maybe, if I get time, (not likely this time of year) I'll try to get a frame of it in my observation hive so I can time the capping and emergence times.
 
#26 ·
Max called yesterday, and we had a long talk about these frames, and whether they are working as well as I could hope for. Other than initial problems with introduction, the queens seem to take to them well after the initial "newness" is wore off. As I told him, I would not put a full super of these on a hive, and expect them to use them for brood right away. My expericane has been that they need to use them for something else first, like honey and pollen storage, and then the queen will use them. Spraying with sugar water/HBH, will help, but is not going to get the queen into them right away. I have found the best acceptance by alternating HSC with drawen frames, and then in a few weeks removing the drawen frames and replacing with frames of HSC. The drawen frames can then be used in the second brood chamber, again alternating with HSC. I also leave drawen frames to the outsides of the broodchamber for them to use as drone brood/honey storage. Once these frames are used, there should be no problem with use in other hives that have not had HSC in them before. I would not use these for swarms if they are brand new. Overall I am very happy with the HSC frames, and feel that these will pay for themselves with the savings of mite treatments alone. I'm trying to talk him into making them in black, so if everyone request black, we might twist his arm enough to get some!!
 
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