attached comb

[RogerRabbit]

My wife and I set up four hives last Sunday and just opened them up today. Actually, we opened them up on Wednesday to top off the feeders and insert pollen, since it's still dropping into the 20F temp range at night and no flowers are blooming yet.(Northern Washington State mountains at 4,000 feet elevation) Today, we made sure the queens had been freed and removed the queen cages. However, in all four hives, the bees had started building comb in the middle of the hive in the wide gap where the queen cage was located, rather than on the foundation, which they haven't touched yet. In one hive, they had attached comb to the inner cover and it hung down about six inches. We broke that one off. Was that the right thing? Should we go back out there tonight and remove the comb that isn't on the foundation? It was impossible to push the frames together with that comb there. Thanks in adavance and I aplogize if this has been already posted elsewhere.
RR

[dcross]

You'll need to take it out sometime, best to do it now before it gets bigger and loaded with brood.

Get/keep the frames pushed together tightly, I direct release when hiving packages to avoid this situation.

[Michael Bush]

If you have some empty frames you can cut the combs to fit the frames and rubber band them in, if they aren't too heavy with nectar and too soft (as new comb often is). The sooner you straighten it out the better.

[RogerRabbit]

Thanks guys, I did that. To the above poster, when you say direct release, do I assume correctly that means you release the queen directly into the hive? My understanding was once the workers eat the marshmallow to release her, they're used to the scent, but I'm still learning.

I also found my smoker was really irritating them, so took a suggestion from a local guy and simply put some syrup in a spray bottle and hit them with that. It seems to calm them down much better than the smoke, which wasn't calming anyone down at all, especially me, since it kept going out at the worst possible time.
RR

[be lote]

only problem with mistin with syrup if you aint careful it will draw ants

[Countryboy]

To the above poster, when you say direct release, do I assume correctly that means you release the queen directly into the hive? My understanding was once the workers eat the marshmallow to release her, they're used to the scent, but I'm still learning.

Yes, direct release is releasing the queen into the hive. You are correct that with a slow release (marshmallow or candy) the bees will have had time to accept the new queen.

The risks of direct releasing are that if the bees have not accepted the queen, they will kill her, and if you are not careful, the queen may fly away while you are releasing her. If the bees have been with the queen more than 24 hours, it is likely they have accepted her. If many are balled on the queen cage and they look like they are trying to chew the screened cage, they have NOT accepted the queen and will kill her if you direct release her. If a half dozen bees are licking through thescreen at the queen or the attendants, they have accepted the queen.

I also found my smoker was really irritating them,

If your smoke was irritating them, you were either using too much smoke, or the smoke was hot and burning them. A little smoke goes a long way. If you pump the bellows several times to get the fire burning good, wait a few minutes for the fire to die down before using slow gentle puffs of smoke on the bees.

An easy way to tell if the smoke is too hot is to blow a puff or two of smoke on your exposed wrist. If it feels hot to you, it is too hot for the bees. If it is cool or slightly warm, it's about right for the bees.

[RogerRabbit]

As I sat watching the activity in my hives this morning, I was wondering if one could set the queen cage just inside the entrance, under the frames when releasing package bees?

I ask because as i said above, putting the queen cage between frames caused the bees to go to a lot of trouble building comb down from the inner cover in the gap between the frames where the queen cage was.

If I could set the queen cage on the bottom of the hive, I could then dump the package bees from the top and fill the super with 9 frames plus feeder, to ensure there were no gaps. I just hate to see them go to all that trouble building comb from either the top cover or the queen cage as two hives did, and then ripping all their hard work back out. Perhaps I just worry too much?
RR

[beedeetee]

I don't know which kind of queen cage that you got, but if it is the 3 hole wooden kind, I put the cage in screen down near the top of the frames. I push the frames together as much as I can.

It seems that they won't build comb covering the screen if they have foundation right there touching the cage. It seems that bees never "always" do things that you think would be normal though.

[Troy]

I would not put the queen on the bottom.

Bees instinctively draw up and into a cluster when it gets cool/cold. They will leave her on the bottom and she'll die.

I had a queen cage fall to the bottom once and she was dead the next time I checked the hive.