Help on Transitioning from Lang to TBH -How to...

[Adam Foster Collins]

Hello All,

I installed two lang nucs into TBH's last weekend. (To my dismay, they were all on plastic foundation, which made the chop and crop method especially difficult). I had to wire the combs to honey bars (1.5 inches wide) because the comb on foundation was too thick.

Question:

How do I transition the comb with plastic foundation and 1.5 inch bars out of the brood nest?

Adam

[alpha6]

I just did this with a person buying nucs for me. While it was very messy, we did accomplish it with minimal damage to the brood. The plan is to install bars between the drawn combs. As they draw these out he is going to move the nuc cut frames towards the outside placing a new bar between the now drawn comb and the cut comb. Once they are far enough outside from the center the hive will use these for pollen and nectar storage and use the center bar combs for brood. As soon any of the cut combs are empty he is going to remove them from the hive. It may be till next spring but it should work. (in theory)

[Adam Foster Collins]

Okay,

So you're suggesting moving them to the outside of the nest until the bees give up using them as brood anymore?

As you're moving bars with cut comb to the outside, what if you move the queen? Will she move back into the heart of the brood nest on her own, or should you shake the frames before moving them?

Tough to do without opening a big space in the nest...

[alpha6]

It would be like this. $= a frame from your nuc and #= a top bar and %= top bar with drawn frame. Assuming you have three frames of brood from your nuc.

Start - #$#$#$# The bees will start to pull the two inside bars between the drawn comb first.

So as they pull out the number 3 and 5 frames and start laying in them. It will look like this. #$%$%$#.

So what you would want to do is move the comb to this. #$#$%#%#$#.
So you see that you are slowly moving the $ towards the outside while keeping the new drawn frames towards the center.

You don't have to lift out frames, just keep sliding the drawn nuc frames towards the outside and place bars in between. Don't worry about the queen, she will move towards the center. Don't shake the bees...they will be fine.

Hope that makes sense.

[Adam Foster Collins]

Okay,

What would the pattern look like if I've got the brood nest at one end. I guess I can only expand it one way, correct? Or do I do the same at the one end?

Thanks again,

Adam

[Sam-Smith]

The theory is the bees like a single broodnest so they use outside bars for honey/pollen, as long as your moving bars to the outside were they eventually fill with honey, this is how you would renew the broodnest when the comb gets to old, my method for that is similar (if I understand alpha) just take the old comb that has brood in it move it to the honey end and replace the empty spot with a blank bar they will tend the brood until it hatches the queen will stay nearer the brood center so the comb wont be layed in again and can be removed ether at harvest or right away. You just have to be careful about to much blank space if the weather is still cold.

[Adam Foster Collins]

Well, I'm wondering now if I've put too much blank space in. I have split it all open, putting empty bars in every second one through the brood nest. The weather's not cold, but now they appear to be filling all the empty spaces with bees; suspending themselves from each other horizontally and vertically, so the space is filled and presumably, the temp stays where they want it. I am reluctant to open it until they've filled it in with new comb. I have a window in the side that I peek in every night, which is how I know what they're up to in there.

So far, I haven't seen any dead brood outside the hive, so I presume there hasn't been much chilled.

Adam

[Sam-Smith]

They fill the space with bees to keep the temp up for comb "modeling" and brood, so you should see some comb peeking out of this cluster in a week or so depending on the flow you have atm. Maby some pics?