Newbie Mistakes..Questions!

1471 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by mrobinson, May 22, 2014

jzucal

Discussion Starter · May 15, 2014

I am completely new to beekeeping and have realized a few mistakes I have made.
1) When I suspended the queen cage in the hive on installation, I placed her between bars 9 & 10 (nearest the divider) and not 3 &4! The bees started their comb on the bar closest to the divider and are working their way towards the end entrance (TBH). Will this mess things up? Do I leave it alone and when they get the brood area filled move the divider down; will they come back to the beginning (bar 11) and continue to build into the rest of the hive? I have read not to rearrange the brood comb as this may really mess the colony up. I was thinking of placing a new entrance on the other end of the hive, moving the bars with comb down towards the new entrance then picking the hive up and rotating it so that their flight pattern isn't changed. Is this a good idea or not?
2) The second mistake I made was not taking the queen cage out. They have build comb around it, instead of cutting it out I have left it there and when pulling these bars out have just been taking both out at the same time as to not disrupt the comb. Is it essential that I get the cage out of there or can it be left alone?

I did a full hive inspection today and the colony is doing really well. Was even able to spot the queen.

Thanks for any input!

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jwcarlson

· #2 · May 15, 2014

jzucal said:
I am completely new to beekeeping and have realized a few mistakes I have made.
1) When I suspended the queen cage in the hive on installation, I placed her between bars 9 & 10 (nearest the divider) and not 3 &4! The bees started their comb on the bar closest to the divider and are working their way towards the end entrance (TBH). Will this mess things up? Do I leave it alone and when they get the brood area filled move the divider down; will they come back to the beginning (bar 11) and continue to build into the rest of the hive? I have read not to rearrange the brood comb as this may really mess the colony up. I was thinking of placing a new entrance on the other end of the hive, moving the bars with comb down towards the new entrance then picking the hive up and rotating it so that their flight pattern isn't changed. Is this a good idea or not?
2) The second mistake I made was not taking the queen cage out. They have build comb around it, instead of cutting it out I have left it there and when pulling these bars out have just been taking both out at the same time as to not disrupt the comb. Is it essential that I get the cage out of there or can it be left alone?

I did a full hive inspection today and the colony is doing really well. Was even able to spot the queen.

Thanks for any input!

1) I had one hive start building from the back, one from the middle, and one split roughly in half and started building in front/back then came together. The goal is straight, centered combs. The combs built on either side will mimic the shape of the combs they are next to and if the queen cage is causing strangly shaped combs, the others drawn will be crooked as well.

2) You need to cut the queen cage out and get the combs straight, they'll repair the damage.

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ruthiesbees

· #3 · May 15, 2014

In a TBH, you can shift all the bars toward the front without causing too much disruption. They typically like to keep the brood nest near the front and honey stores near the back, so as the season progresses, they might "rearrange" it for you. Definitely get the queen cage out of there and push the fresh comb back into place as best as possible. And if needed, insert that comb between two other combs so it's not the one closest to an undrawn bar.

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Michael Bush

· #4 · May 15, 2014

Bees build parallel combs. You need the combs to be straight in order for the rest of the combs to be straight. However you can. If you can push them into place, tie them into place, build a frame and rubber band them into place...

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mrobinson

· #5 · May 20, 2014

(Shrug ...) All that I have ever done is to remove the non-candy end from the queen cage, briefly cover up the opening with my gloved finger, and set the whole thing directly into the bottom of the hive, face up. Take your time. Then put the bars back in place and call yourself "Done."

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jzucal

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 21, 2014

Thanks for your responses. I went in and carefully cut the cage out. Not too much damage to the comb so I guess the bees will repair this. The rest of the comb looks straight, I don't think having the cage in there messed that up, As for the direction they are building in, I guess I'll just leave it go and they'll figure it out. I was thinking I could just number the bars so I know where they started.

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mrobinson

· #7 · May 22, 2014

Generally, the shape of the hive seems to be three-dimensional, with the combs running down laterally through that three-dimensional "object." I've seen them start from the middle and I've seen them start on one side. But honey, eventually, will be toward one-or-both ends with the brood in the middle. You'd like for them to very-neatly build one comb on each bar but sometimes two bars will be stuck together with comb between. If you do number them, number them lightly with a pencil because over time they'll wind up being in a fairly random order.

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