I used bur comb found in the brood box and mashed 50 cent piece sized into the centre of the frame on both sides.
My thinking is that since bees are a bit OCD, they’ll redistribute around the mashed up bur comb and end up working that area first, then work towards the edges.
I too had some concern with the alignment and gaps, but within a month, my ladies had waxed and drawn out the comb and were filling.
Welcome and all the best. We look forward to what you will report back.
Very helpful post and video link, Fred, thank you.
I think one of the main draws of the wax is not so much the mess as the pheromones. Burr comb has “footprint” pheromones on it, and these tell the bees that this funny plastic stuff is an accepted part of the hive. Melted wax has some too, so I think they both work the same way. Bees do “recycle” some wax, but not much. When there is a strong nectar flow, the house bees will be secreting so much new wax, that they really don’t need to reuse much.
If you have a strong hive, it certainly will get around very quickly. It took my bees about 2 weeks to wax the frames, and another month or so to fill them. However, our nectar flows are pretty mean, as we basically have a desert climate. Your bees might be considerably faster.
OK, sorry if that came across wrong. What I meant was that Peter’s way gives a pretty result on the frame, and works nicely.
However, as I work about 60-80 hours per week (not on beekeeping) it takes more time than I really have. Additionally, bees in a desert climate like mine have a short and sparse nectar flow. That means that wax production is not overabundant. In the last 4 years, I have probably gathered a total of about 400g of purified wax (also time-consuming). It is much easier to take a bit of burr comb than use my precious rendered wax. I am perhaps lazy about it, Peter is not.
Maybe if I ever retire (unlikely), I will take the time to paint new Flow frames. For now, I am a lazy smusher.
Just chipping in to say that rolling molten wax onto the flow frames is a waste of time and effort, even though it does work. But consider that the bees have to undo the roll on mess to redo it all into their very intricate artwork of cell building.
A little burr comb with even a little nectar in it (from the same hive) randomly crushed into some frames does an excellent job to give the bees the idea.
Once they start on the frames, there is no stopping them.
The real secret though is a good nectar flow.
Sorry you misread what I said, nothing about rolling on molten wax as a mess, please don’t misquote me. We are here to pass on our advice and tips ok…
I use a $2 paint brush and brush the wax on the end of the comb so that there is wax ready for them to use where they want it. The bees certainly use the wax and after a lot of experiments I have adopted that way for having the frames put to use fastest. Maybe it is the smell of recently melted wax that helps.
An update on my hive. Each interior frame is becoming more inundated with bees, but just wondering what the small white cell my bees are fixated on in the side window?
Maybe a deposit of fresh wax, is it on the perspex window or in the cell? It is normal to get small amounts of wax on the window when the bees start working the flow frames.
Just the girls keeping us guessing , it may be a denser piece of wax. But it is fun looking into their world and trying to figure out their objectives. Enjoy.
I’m thinking ir some bee made wax and it is there just till the bees want to use it on sealing up the cell segments. I have seen the same thing with wax left on the window but the next day it was gone, so I doubt you have anything to worry about, sometimes bees work in strange ways. The bees are obviously not stressed about it being there Chris.
, it may be a denser piece of wax. But it is fun looking into their world and trying to figure out their objectives. Enjoy.
Our hive is like a bee superhighway at the moment. These girls are working hard at it.