Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

Olive oil to prevent burr comb

6K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by  Oldtimer 
#1 ·
Can bee's built wax comb over something lightly coated in olive oil? I'm not willing to try it, but I was wondering what the beek world thinks about perhaps oiling up the bottom of feeders so you dont have the issue of them building burr comb onto the bottoms of them. Does olive oil ever dry out?
 
#2 ·
I have never heard of olive oil drying out, but it can go rancid (off). I don't know what effects rancid olive oil could have on bees, but there's a fair bit of hype about the negative health effects of humans ingesting rancid oil. Strangely enough, the only scientific study I could find indicated that many consumers actually prefer the taste of rancid olive oil (compared to fresh). http://bit.ly/UP1NIf

If the olive oil stays wet, is there a risk that bees might walk the oil into other parts of the hive and contaminate the honey?
 
#3 ·
The bees will clean up the olive oil and if they are going to build burr comb, they will still build it.

Also, as per Jeanette, olive oil is probably not the greatest thing to put in a beehive.

Your burr comb can be better handled by the way you set up the hive. First off, all hives have burr comb you need to get used to it, if there is a suitable gap the bees will fill it. However hives using combs built on comb foundation and having less than the natural amount of drone comb, build a lot more burr comb as they'll squeeze some drone cells in anywhere they can. If you allow your bees to have a comb or two of drone comb they will build a lot less burr comb. To let them have a frame of drone comb just put in an empty frame, no foundation. They will fill it with drone comb.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top