Hi, my bees have had the same comb for a few years now and I really want to replace it because its old and quite dark. However, I have tried to get the bees to build new combs on wax foundation frames and frames without wax, but they won’t build anything new! They only use the old frames.
Can anyone help?
Hello Francesca, welcome to the forum, nice folks here and happy to pass on advice and tips.
You might try feeding a 1:1 syrup internally in the hive but with the cooler weather the bees might ignore the foundation over Winter while the colony has reduced in numbers and the queen laying less eggs. Bees won’t build out comb till it is needed so they may ignore it till Spring.
Cheers
Thanks Peter! Will do.
Just a bit more info, I always use frames that are wired and I use full sheets of foundation. Using sheets of foundation the bees will make a lot less drone cells which will be on the outside edge of the frame. The bees will build comb on foundation much faster and almost eliminate wonky comb. Also the bees will consume 6kg of honey to produce 1kg of wax. Fortunately there is enough folks in Australia making bees wax foundation that is toxin and poison free but I won’t buy foundation off EBay that is even possibly made in China.
Cheers