Winter prep - Treated with mite strips, now not many bees. Do i have a serious problem? Pennsylvania, USA

Just a thought - your rubber bands look very thick. For fragile new comb, I use skinny ones (1/16") - size 117A seems to work well most of the time. I always keep a few in my bee kit bag. I find it easiest to put the bands (say 4 to 6 bands) around a spare frame, then ease the comb gently between them. The thinner ones stretch quite easily and don’t damage the comb as much. It does help to have 2 people working on it though, otherwise you run out of hands! :blush:

Here is a photo showing how we used them to hold a queen cage in place earlier this year:

Excellent. They were thick. It’s all I had at the moment and thought it would prevent it from cutting into the comb as much. It did the job and will keep the thin ones in mind. Thanks for all the replies everyone!!!

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It would be a great idea to buy 2 sheets of plastic foundation, cut them into 1 or 2" strips, and fasten them to the underside of the top bar as a better guide. Another good idea would to get some heavy fishing line and use the holes in the side bars to string it across as re-enforcement. Those deep combs tend to sag or break during hot summer manipulations.

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That’s the truth, and they’re so fragile when new. I’ve had very good results with afixing three or four bamboo skewers as vertical bracing inside deep frames. I drill evenly spaced shallow holes into the underside of the top bar, then a dab of glue & pop the blunt end of a skewer in. Then I just snip the excess length off the pointy end with hand nippers, to where it’s going to fit with just enough pressure to be snug without bending. The bees start little paddle-shaped comb pieces inside each of the smaller areas & then join them all up. Very sturdy!

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