I have found with my packages that comb growth is almost explosive in the first week and slows down gradually until it hits a near standstill at around four weeks, it stays that way until about week eight where it seems to pick up again and proceed at a moderate pace for the rest of the year but it never again is as dramatic as the first two weeks.

The best explanation I heard for the week four slow down is that at that point very little/no brood has hatched and the youngest bees in your hive are at least four weeks old while the older and middle aged bees from your packaged are now dead. Your hive is being run by geriatrics and they just can keep up the pace that the used to be able to.

In order for them to expand again they first need to establish a brood nest capable of replacing the daily die off and expand the population at the same time but since more brood also need more nurse bees its a relatively slow process until they can build up to a critical mass that can begin to make bees faster than they age.

 

I have a hive doing the same thing. Things were booming, then a long slow down. I thought I may be queenless, so I checked and found the queen, no capped brood, but there was larva. They were Italians, my other hive is Carniolans and they are waay ahead. I don't know, maybe my queen sucks, but I think she slowed down because the numbers fell drastically.

 

Both of my swarms did the same thing, so did the package last year.

The bees will make as much comb as they can work, then stop and use the outer combs for storage until a round of brood emerges. After about four weeks the number of bees will start to increase steadily, and they will start building comb again, but not as fast as the initial burst.

Make sure they have sufficient nectar and pollen coming in, and if not, supply syrup and pollen patties, you want them to be fat and happy, not just barely making it. I didn't feed enough last year and lost the hive early in the spring.

Peter

 

Carnolians will, on average, draw comb much faster than Italians. They will boom when there is a flow on. I use mine to draw comb to give to weaker hives. They will also put up more honey than Italians during a flow. They will almost stop though when a flow ends.

 

Thanks for asking this question. My new hive has the same issue- no new comb for the last two weeks, but I think some of the first brood has emerged last week. I guess I just have to be patient. Yes the queen is still around.

Eric

 

Most likely there is no longer a honey flow in progress. To stimulate continued colony growth and comb building, feeding sugar syrup and pollen patties or pollen substitute patties would be advised.

 

Only problem with feeding syrup is they will store that along side the honey and when it comes time to extract you will get sugar syrup mixed in with your honey. Am I correct in that assumption? I have been debating that very thing because we are in a very dry stretch here and I want my bee's to continue growing.

 

Mine did the same thing, it is week 6 for me and I just added another deep, and have been feeding them syrup from the beginning, and will until second deep is drawn out, things will get slow, but a lot of new bees emerging

 

Yep, sometimes it's a matter of, feed and the bees get sugar mixed into the honey or don't feed and they grow weaker and sometimes even starve. But if they're new or weaker colonies, they need to grow to be strong enough and populous enough to have a chance to bring in much when a honey flow does arrive. It's a balance/juggling act, not always cut and dry.

We had a warmer and wetter than usual Winter, and that helped produce enough forage to get them going well, then our main flow (mesquite) kicked in a couple of weeks early. Now it's ended almost a month earlier than it ever has before, so hive resources are quickly becoming "tight" and robbers are challenging every hive and nuc every day.

I can still get them to draw plastic foundation if I coat it with plenty of extra beeswax, but beeswax foundation or foundationless is not gonna happen, unless another flow starts or I feed some sugar syrup.

 

Unless you plan to kill off the colony in the fall and take every bit of honey they made, I'd not worry about sugar syrup in the honey for a first year colony. If they are not building comb and have not filled the space you want them to, you will have to feed syrup to get them to do so. Failure to feed them up into a large colony this year will likely result in a weak colony next spring, or a deadout.

I have a caught swarm that I'm going to start feeding today, they are just sitting, very little foraging activity, and still have not drawn a full deep yet. Nice brood pattern, but small brood area and no new wax, must not be foraging much and our spring flow is just about over.

Feeding is even more important in the fall -- you really need strong, healthy winter bees loaded to the gills with protein of they will not be able to make strong new spring bees, and you will either lose the colony altogether in early spring or miss most of the spring flow.

Failure to feed when needed has driven several of my friends out of beekeeping because they kept losing colonies. Got too expensive, all for the want of a few bucks worth of sugar syrup and a few protein patties.

Peter

 

I am filling the boardman feeder weekly and just added a couple pollen substitute patties on the inner cover. I will continue with the feeder with 1-1 sugar water until they draw out two deeps (I hope).

Eric

 

Shouldn't the pollen substitute patties be on the top bars - immediately over the brood, not above the inner cover? I've had good success feeding pollen sub patties through a wire queen excluder, strategically placed just above the brood nest, it permits them to access more of the patties, so they take it more quickly.

 

Evidently we all have different experiences/situations. I’ve never had any success getting my bees to draw comb without a good nectar flow. Feeding during a nectar flow supplements the nectar and they will draw comb more quickly but once the nectar flow ends….bye bye to comb production. And if I continued feeding after the nectar flow my bees tend to take that sugar syrup and fill any available comb with it instead of producing more comb. They then tend to become honey bound…filling even brood comb with syrup, leaving no room for brood production. I believe that natural nectar triggers the instinct to produce wax and sugar alone, for some reason, doesn’t.
That’s how it seems to work here.
Good luck.

 

Yeah, it’s one of those tough calls—we feed, and there’s the risk of sugar in the honey… but if we don’t, the bees might weaken or even starve, especially new or struggling colonies. They need time and strength to be ready when a real flow hits. It’s all a juggling act, never black and white.

We had a warmer, wetter winter than usual, which thankfully gave them a decent start. The mesquite flow came early, which was great—but now it’s ended almost a month sooner than ever before. Resources are drying up fast, and robbers are relentless. Every hive and nuc is getting tested daily.

I can still coax them into drawing plastic foundation if I coat it with enough beeswax. But beeswax foundation or foundationless? Not happening right now—unless another flow kicks in or I give them a little sugar syrup to keep them going.

 

Thank you so much for giving a such nice information.

 

The amount of nectar or sugar syrup available to the colony will determine the speed of comb building. Pollen or pollen substitute is protein for feeding the brood and is not directly linked to comb building. Pollen or pollen substitute can help the colony population grow which indirectly can lead to faster comb building. Bees will build comb faster on beeswax foundation than they will on plastic foundation. You probable don't have sufficient nectar coming into your hives and need to feed 1:1 sugar syrup. You will need to keep sugar syrup out of honey that is for human consumption. Likewise, you need to keep medications out of honey that is for human consumption. The easiest way to keep honey free of sugar syrup and medications is to have distinct supers for honey and don't feed syrup or medicate when those supers are on the hives (except for medications or treatments that are approved for use when supers are on the hives). If your hives have deep or medium frames and your honey supers have shallow frames, or Ross Rounds, or other distinct equipment, you will never have a problem mixing up combs for human consumption with combs for brood boxes.