Could anyone explain the “stelig style of comb” & why they would do it. Plenty of room on other frames. I’m guessing honey top left corner and pollen the rest?
This frame was on the outside.
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hi Jason, It is honey in the top left corner and just about every other cell has pollen in it. That bur comb looks in the pic that it is sticking out a really long way. Have you got the frames sitting together shoulder to shoulder, then there should be about an 8mm gap to the side of the box from the outer shoulder. The gap should be equal on both sides of the box. I’m at Coolum Beach if you would like me to have a look at the issue.
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Thx Pete,
I have obviously finished the inspection & I replaced that frame with another that I was told to keep frozen as a “ just in case frame”- ( full off pollen). If you think it’s ok, I might not disturb again but if I inspect in 3 months or so and similar result I may call on your experience if ok ? I’m at Caloundra though.
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Hi Jason, seeing as you’re on the Sunny Coast, a 3 month gap between brood inspections might be a tad too long. Your colony could swarm on you, going by the amount of pollen in that frame. My advice on frame spacing differs. I like to evenly space the frames, including a 3mm gap on either side. I believe it gives the workers more room to move air around during hot weather. Also more room for the bes to chase beetles.
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Thx Jeff, how often to inspect would you say then? Didn’t want to disturb too much. Would by monthly be ok? Happy for advice.
! try to do mine fortnightly in the warmer weather, from now till May, I checked one hive that was booming 4 weeks ago so did a split, looked at it again last night with a red light and lots of bearding, did a full inspection this morning and it could do with another split.
I suspect that if I left it for 3 months it would have swarmed, probably more than once.
Jeff is at Buderim so there you can get local advice about conditions,
Cheers
It’s hard to put a definitive time on how often is enough. You need to understand why you do an inspection & what you’re looking at while doing it. You need to get to know bee culture, so you can understand what the bees are likely to be doing throughout the seasons. Right now the bees are rapidly building up to swarming strength, so they can eventually swarm. That’s how they reproduce.
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