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I don't know if this is known already or not, but I think that comb from the year before is a trigger to swarm for old queens. Freshly mated queens take to old or not freshly drawn comb just fine but old queens will not lay in it, or will very little. I read about Asian honeybees not laying in re-used comb and now I think that our European or Western honeybee has the same thing.
So, for old queens you will want to let their colony start from scratch or almost so, like they would in swarming naturally.
I think that honey bound and pollen bound condition comes from having an old queen with old comb.
Actually old queens do lay in old comb just fine, too, during Spring build-up but some time after building up the old queen stops laying so well in non-fresh comb.
I have done opening up the brood nest as a swarm control method by placing empty foundation-less frames in between brood frames. It worked well to control swarming. But it took a lot of my time and labor. So I was hoping for better methods to control swarming without having to put so much time into each colony, opening up the brood nest. I think that one reason that opening up the brood nest works is that it gets freshly drawn comb into the brood chamber for the old queen to lay eggs in.
I have had colonies this year with old queens that would slow down egg laying and become almost as if the colony was sick or had a bad queen, but then I took a little split out of each of these colonies and replaced the space with empty foundation-less frames (like in opening up the brood nest method). They drew out fresh comb and the queens laid beautiful compact brood in the new frames of comb, yet still all the rest of the comb in the colony was patchy in brood pattern and filled with bee bread.
Horizontal top bar hives would be easier for looking for the queen. Frames get glued to the rabbeted frame rests and lifting the top boxes off is bad for the back. Also, the top bars have a good handle on each end of the bar while frames do not.
My father recently has made these "blue belly hives" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srdbdTkRNVY) for me and I actually see some potential in them. The combs on the top bars are so wide that I may not have to lift out the top-bar to look for the queen. I have a good view just looking into the hive and sliding aside each top-bar of comb that I have checked for the queen.
Sincerely,
Nathaniel Long IV
So, for old queens you will want to let their colony start from scratch or almost so, like they would in swarming naturally.
I think that honey bound and pollen bound condition comes from having an old queen with old comb.
Actually old queens do lay in old comb just fine, too, during Spring build-up but some time after building up the old queen stops laying so well in non-fresh comb.
I have done opening up the brood nest as a swarm control method by placing empty foundation-less frames in between brood frames. It worked well to control swarming. But it took a lot of my time and labor. So I was hoping for better methods to control swarming without having to put so much time into each colony, opening up the brood nest. I think that one reason that opening up the brood nest works is that it gets freshly drawn comb into the brood chamber for the old queen to lay eggs in.
I have had colonies this year with old queens that would slow down egg laying and become almost as if the colony was sick or had a bad queen, but then I took a little split out of each of these colonies and replaced the space with empty foundation-less frames (like in opening up the brood nest method). They drew out fresh comb and the queens laid beautiful compact brood in the new frames of comb, yet still all the rest of the comb in the colony was patchy in brood pattern and filled with bee bread.
Horizontal top bar hives would be easier for looking for the queen. Frames get glued to the rabbeted frame rests and lifting the top boxes off is bad for the back. Also, the top bars have a good handle on each end of the bar while frames do not.
My father recently has made these "blue belly hives" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srdbdTkRNVY) for me and I actually see some potential in them. The combs on the top bars are so wide that I may not have to lift out the top-bar to look for the queen. I have a good view just looking into the hive and sliding aside each top-bar of comb that I have checked for the queen.
Sincerely,
Nathaniel Long IV
