80% of one of the brood box frames broke 2 weeks ago. I assumed these industrious bees would have it up and going again but much to my surprise they have not fixed any of it. All other signs of the hive look healthy. Lots of honey in super. What would you do? Just leave it in there as a big empty space for the winter (I’m in Ontario Canada we are harvesting right now and heading into fall)? Should I get an in-hive feeder to make use of the space? Should I purchase a frame from a local beekeeper? Opinion from people in similar climate?
Broke in what way? Did the wood part break? Or did the wax fall out of the frame? If the wax fell out, I would rubber band it back in place. If the frame is broken, I would put a new one in with foundation in it. They probably won’t use it over winter, but at least it will be ready to go for next year.
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Hi. I am in UK. If the brood box frame is in the centre then move it to the edge and move the others along. Keep the sequence.
It sounds like you have no spare kit. I would always advise having spare brood frames that have been drawn just for an occasion like this.
Hope this helps.
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I have a frame with a rubber band on it. Been on for a year or so. Keep thinking to change it. But it’s always in use with brood and I can never bring myself to change it. The bees like it. I always have another frame that needs moving to the outside. Wasn’t until I read your post that I remembered it.
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I’m adding the photo the way dawn describes. That’s what I initially did but I have cruddy rural internet and it probably isn’t working. I’m trying again in this message! It said it worked…
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In my previous message I believe the one photo worked. I’m trying the second photo in this message.
If you can see (I’m sorry my photo is awful) I’ve put a little piece of stick to block the holes. I wonder why this is happening.
Your photo of the Flow key cover posted nicely this time, thank you. 
I don’t know why that is happening, but @Freebee2 has asked for you to send a copy of the photo to info@honeyflow.com, so that they can make any needed suggestions.
Meanwhile, if you want to, you could take the cover off and fill the gap in the wood with some wood filler and sand it down to shape once it is has dried. You could quite easily build it up a bit to block the gap with the filler. Once dried, it would not be harmful to your bees.
It looks like your wood is untreated and delaminating a bit, is it cedar or pine?
Dawn,
I have a cedar hive. Was I supposed to treat it!?! Ahh
Looks like the key cover is slightly over sized and just needed reducing in size when it was built. And the part above it is slightly undersized. It’s easy to do but then other parts need to be detached and reattached to correctly fit. I think the filler as Dawn said or a fillet of wood.
It is however the part size and construction that is not correct.
You don’t need to treat cedar, but it does last slightly better if you do. If you had pine, I would be much more concerned, as the wood is not nearly as resilient. You haven’t done anything wrong - it is fine untreated.
it is hard to understand exactly what you are describing with the broken frames. If you mean some combs have broken and slumped down into the hive- it will be nearly impossible for the bees to repair them in a way that is useful for you the beekeeper. They will continue using parts of the broken comb- attaching them to other combs- and building in any gaps that are left. the end result will be comb all over the place and frames that cannot be pulled out like books in a shelf. You really need all your combs to be like books neatly arranged side by side. It sounds like you might need some help from an experienced beekeeper to go through the hive removing the damaged comb and replacing it.
I actually recommend that novice beekeepers use frames with wire and foundation- especially in brood boxes when they are first being established. Foundationless combs can be great but they can also cause issues if they are not built out correctly and evenly. Using foundation can really help in easily and quickly establishing a very manageable brood box with even frames with a high percentage of worker sized cells.The initial expense of wax foundation soon pays for itself in the form of a perfect brood box that is easy to manage.
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Jack- thank you this is advice is extremely helpful. I’m going to get one frame with wire and foundation but I have to order for it to be delivered. They say they can’t guarantee it won’t crack bc it’s brittle. If it cracks, will the bees manage? Will it counter act the benefit of getting a frame with foundation?
Thanks for you expert help!
I am thinking there is a bit of confusion about what is advising and the way you are reading it. What Jack is explaining is to use a frame that is wired and has foundation already in place in the frame fitted into the top bar slot and melted to the wire. Maybe your thinking of buying a sheet of foundation separately to the wired frame, and that is brittle and flexible as it is not supported and protected by the frame.
I understand that as you have one hive you don’t have the gear to make up and wire frames so that is where a local bee keeper can help you out who is happy to sell you a made up brood frame already wired and with the foundation already in place… I wouldn’t expect that to arrive thru the post or a courier without being damaged.
Cheers
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If you buy foundation, you are going to have to discard the comb which fell out. Are you sure that you want to do that?
If it cracks, the bees will manage, as long is it is still aligned with the frame. If it isn’t, they may get creative, and then you could have the same problem that you already have.
Why not rubber band the piece that fell out back into your existing frame? It isn’t that hard to do.
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The whole story:
3 weeks ago I was in the brood box doing a check. I took the frame on the side out and leaned it up against the front of the hive (something I learned in some video/from a beekeeper/somewhere in my self taught beekeeping) so I could easily pull the rest of the frames out. However where ever I learned this from perhaps doesn’t use frames without foundation. The comb that the bees built was heavy and it slowly broke off as I was looking at the other frames. Because my frames (from flow hive) are foundation-less, it was very heavy full of honey and brood, and the bees had not completed the entire comb (it was not attached to the bottom of wooden frame) is why it broke. It was devastating and I’m a beginner and it made me cry. But alas that’s what happened. My question is:
I see the bees have not rebuilt this frame. What would you experienced beekeepers do at this point? I just took of the honey super.
Thank you for your help. I know it was a poor mistake
What did you do with the comb? Is it still in the frame, or did you throw it out?
If it is still in the comb, make sure it is straight, with rubber bands if necessary to hold it in line with the frame.
If you threw it out, just leave the frame in the hive. No need to buy a new frame or foundation, etc. They probably will not rebuild until there is another nectar flow - in your climate, that will likely be around April next year. Even if you give them foundation, they likely won’t use it until Spring.
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@JoannaD What Dawn has said is very true. If the comb in the frame is repairable the bees will do it but not use the cells along a fracture for brood but will use the rest of the frame. Using rubber bands to hold everything together till the bees can repair it more permanently is a good move.
As with a lot of bee keeping there is more than one way to get to the same end result, When I am making up a new hive I wire my frames and fit bees wax foundation and it works well for me. with two possible issues, don’t buy foundation that might be of Chinese origin as they are buggers for blending bees wax with paraffin wax for more profit as paraffin is much cheaper. The other issue is that even locally produced foundation may contain some toxins, and there is no way to know if it is present. Over here I only buy from the one producer of foundation who is in a big-way and so far his wax is good.
Cheers
Hello there Joana,
don’t worry to much- mistakes happen. Yes: when you have a foundationless frame you have to be very careful how you hold it- It needs to be kept in a vertical orientation as it is very delicate and will break easily if gravity can pull it to either side. As you found. Once it has been attached at the sides and the bottom it become much stronger- after a year of use in a brood box it will be very strong once bee cocoons have strengthened the wax.
So- it sounds to me like you just have a gap where it was - and the easiest solution would be to slip in a new frame of foundation with wires. You could also put in a plastic frame coated with wax in a pinch (I prefer natural but plastic does work too).
You could salvage the comb as dawn has suggested by rubber banding it into an empty wooden frame: however it takes a little skill and maybe reading to work out how to do this well- and it depends ont he state of the piece/s of comb if it is worth it or not.
To see how rubber banding should be done- the video linked int he article below shows the best method I have ever seen- the trick is the rubber bands he uses to push the comb pieces up to the top bar of the frame. I have copied this method with brilliant results. After the bees repair an re-attach the comb they chew the bands off and throw them out the front door of the hive:
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I kept the comb - out of interest to show my kids. But it’s full of dead bees and is that sanitary? I had left it in front of the hive for a couple days after it broke so the bees could take from it what they wanted.
I think I wont use an elastic to put it back. It looks old and gross now, having sat outside and now is 3 weeks old.
I may purchase a wooden frame with foundation. with wires. They can use it in early spring.
Thank you!
Bees love gross wax. Seriously! They will clean it up in no time. Just rubber band it in the right way up, so that the cells slant slightly down towards the center of the comb. If you put it in upside down, the bees can’t fix it.
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