This is good stuff Don. I can attest to it. For my first two years of beekeeping I tried saving and reusing combs, like all the other beginners you mention. It just led to a big mess of drawn combs laying all around, and the bees never seemed to want them. I do like you now, and every single frame that is even questionable, I just gut it and melt it down. I'm building up a good inventory of my own wax (nothing compared to you I'm sure) and that helps when making my own starter strips. It is hard to get past that mindset of "save the bees the effort of building new". But I've also observed a healthy and well fed colony draw out a frame in a day no problem. So that doesn't take them long to rebuild all that you cut out. The only comb I put in the freezer is honeycomb that I then open feed later. I'm sure you've learned, a bucket of comb sitting out becomes a beetle/moth mess. So I open feed it, then freeze it until I'm ready to melt it down. One little tip on that, freeze it so it's brittle, then crush it to save space in the freezer. I don't have the time to just go straight from the frame to the pot, so I have to build up a reasonable volume, then melt it down and refine it. Keep up the good fight! More people need to try more for themselves and not just listed to what some other person says they do.
Glad to see you also practice this. I've kept bees for 20 years now and was always told to keep the comb for next year's splits, etc. I'm also going to switch over to the strips this coming season and letting the bees draw it out. I had a rough summer with parent issues and lost a pile of my hives. I'm going out tomorrow morning to see if any are even alive out of 30. I'm not optimistic. I'll be re-building by apiaries so what better way to do it than with new foundation and starter strips.
I agree every year i change out my old brood comb, all brood comb is a shell of cocoons there very little wax in brood comb. I also think that where a lot of diseases form, even tho they put very thin layer of propolis back into the brood cocoon shell to cut down infection. By not putting new brood comb back into the hives, and keep using the old brood comb over and over again. The new comb that full of honey i will spend the honey out and put the frame of comb back into the hive. Bees need to make wax comb, that what they do. When they start laying in the honey comb that when i use it as brood comb. I wait until the bees hatch out and spend the frame out with the honey, and start putting it in the brood chambers for new brood comb. I don't have to worry about it being cell rite, they made it for there needs. All i have on my frames is a guide wedge that i put melted wax on for a starter strip, they draw comb out just as fast as using foundation with out all the cost of buy or making foundation. Its a money pit, and the biggest cost of Bee Keeping is wax foundation, and buying things rather than making things. We learn threw the school of hard knocks. That how i learn by trying things rite or wrong ..The new invention i a made is a screen bottom SHB oil trap and it works EXCELLENT on SHB and there Larvae and Wax Moths Larvae. The bees pulls the larvae out of the cells or comb or kick them off the frames and they fall threw the screen and drowns in a tray of cooking oil. The trap is 2" tall with a door on the back with a hing so you can pull the tray out and serves it. then close the door and lock with a hing lock. The bees can not get threw the # 8 screen only SHB and Larvae..ALL 88 of my hives has a screen bottom SHB oil traps from 1 box all the way up to 6 boxes. i even made the traps for nec boxes. That how good they work. That is a lot of worries off a BK mind, and don't have all the inspection to do every week or 2, now can go for months with out setting the bees back. All one must look at is the oil levels in the trays with out opening the hives up all the time. Plus you can tell what going on in the hive by the oil trays. Will see wax capping SHB or Larvae or even ants.. Now the bad side of the oil trap, it will not work right if there fallen comb on the screen, That the ONLY bad side. Thanks for the blogs CHEERS BUDDY
This is fantastic! I'm just starting my first hive this year, I'm a complete novice so all of this info is great great great :) Thank you and keep up the good work.
Hate mail or not what you said makes too much sense to not logically consider. i think you are 100% right and are on the right track with not treating and using IPM to control disease and mites.
I'm going out to the apiaries tomorrow morning to see what I've got left. Parent issues this summer didn't allow me to run my usual hive maintenance and I've lost most of my colonies. I'm not sure if I've got any left of my 30. If this is the case I'll have the perfect opportunity to re-start my colonies with foundation. I'll built double nuc boxes through the season and double or triple my numbers. I won't harvest honey but at least the hives will be on new comb this year. My mentors were the old school with foundation and it's been hard to just get rid of the drawn comb. Your explanation now makes it clear to it's true importance. I'll be culling out a lot of frames this winter and hopefully melting down some wax to pay for new packages. Boy, I haven't bought a package in 16 or 17 years. Have a safe warm winter.
I have some nuc frames from the spring that were awful when I got them...transferred them to the 10 frame last spring. They currently are in the brood chamber but have larva in them yet... This fall would you recommend pulling those out and placing new in there? I use plastic foundation, so they would need to draw out yet. Sound or unsound?
I bought your videos an learned a lot .i want to get more of them .i like keeping bees but need to learn more.i want to get on your chats but need help thank you for the videos
My frames are too old what I have to do with bees when I remove that ......I do not have any other frame in order to place them in place of frams those frm I have to remove. Wax .....what I have to do plz tell me
Don you are a great mentor! Thanks for the video!
This is good stuff Don. I can attest to it. For my first two years of beekeeping I tried saving and reusing combs, like all the other beginners you mention. It just led to a big mess of drawn combs laying all around, and the bees never seemed to want them. I do like you now, and every single frame that is even questionable, I just gut it and melt it down. I'm building up a good inventory of my own wax (nothing compared to you I'm sure) and that helps when making my own starter strips.
It is hard to get past that mindset of "save the bees the effort of building new". But I've also observed a healthy and well fed colony draw out a frame in a day no problem. So that doesn't take them long to rebuild all that you cut out. The only comb I put in the freezer is honeycomb that I then open feed later. I'm sure you've learned, a bucket of comb sitting out becomes a beetle/moth mess. So I open feed it, then freeze it until I'm ready to melt it down. One little tip on that, freeze it so it's brittle, then crush it to save space in the freezer. I don't have the time to just go straight from the frame to the pot, so I have to build up a reasonable volume, then melt it down and refine it.
Keep up the good fight! More people need to try more for themselves and not just listed to what some other person says they do.
Glad to see you also practice this. I've kept bees for 20 years now and was always told to keep the comb for next year's splits, etc.
I'm also going to switch over to the strips this coming season and letting the bees draw it out.
I had a rough summer with parent issues and lost a pile of my hives. I'm going out tomorrow morning to see if any are even alive out of 30. I'm not optimistic. I'll be re-building by apiaries so what better way to do it than with new foundation and starter strips.
I agree every year i change out my old brood comb, all brood comb is a shell of cocoons there very little wax in brood comb. I also think that where a lot of diseases form, even tho they put very thin layer of propolis back into the brood cocoon shell to cut down infection. By not putting new brood comb back into the hives, and keep using the old brood comb over and over again. The new comb that full of honey i will spend the honey out and put the frame of comb back into the hive. Bees need to make wax comb, that what they do. When they start laying in the honey comb that when i use it as brood comb. I wait until the bees hatch out and spend the frame out with the honey, and start putting it in the brood chambers for new brood comb. I don't have to worry about it being cell rite, they made it for there needs. All i have on my frames is a guide wedge that i put melted wax on for a starter strip, they draw comb out just as fast as using foundation with out all the cost of buy or making foundation. Its a money pit, and the biggest cost of Bee Keeping is wax foundation, and buying things rather than making things. We learn threw the school of hard knocks. That how i learn by trying things rite or wrong ..The new invention i a made is a screen bottom SHB oil trap and it works EXCELLENT on SHB and there Larvae and Wax Moths Larvae. The bees pulls the larvae out of the cells or comb or kick them off the frames and they fall threw the screen and drowns in a tray of cooking oil. The trap is 2" tall with a door on the back with a hing so you can pull the tray out and serves it. then close the door and lock with a hing lock. The bees can not get threw the # 8 screen only SHB and Larvae..ALL 88 of my hives has a screen bottom SHB oil traps from 1 box all the way up to 6 boxes. i even made the traps for nec boxes. That how good they work. That is a lot of worries off a BK mind, and don't have all the inspection to do every week or 2, now can go for months with out setting the bees back. All one must look at is the oil levels in the trays with out opening the hives up all the time. Plus you can tell what going on in the hive by the oil trays. Will see wax capping SHB or Larvae or even ants.. Now the bad side of the oil trap, it will not work right if there fallen comb on the screen, That the ONLY bad side. Thanks for the blogs CHEERS BUDDY
Thankyou Don. Very informative as usual and self-effacing. You are an inspiration. Warm regards from DownUnder.
This is fantastic! I'm just starting my first hive this year, I'm a complete novice so all of this info is great great great :) Thank you and keep up the good work.
Thanks again Don... telling my wife about your classes now.... I see a beekeeping vacation in the future.... we are in Maryland
great video I will start doing this next spring. Thanks Don
Hate mail or not what you said makes too much sense to not logically consider. i think you are 100% right and are on the right track with not treating and using IPM to control disease and mites.
I'm going out to the apiaries tomorrow morning to see what I've got left. Parent issues this summer didn't allow me to run my usual hive maintenance and I've lost most of my colonies. I'm not sure if I've got any left of my 30. If this is the case I'll have the perfect opportunity to re-start my colonies with foundation. I'll built double nuc boxes through the season and double or triple my numbers. I won't harvest honey but at least the hives will be on new comb this year. My mentors were the old school with foundation and it's been hard to just get rid of the drawn comb. Your explanation now makes it clear to it's true importance. I'll be culling out a lot of frames this winter and hopefully melting down some wax to pay for new packages. Boy, I haven't bought a package in 16 or 17 years.
Have a safe warm winter.
nice one Don.I agree bees like the new stuff best, just leave them to it I say
Never hurts to rotate old comb out on Strong hives. They don't even slow down.
I have some nuc frames from the spring that were awful when I got them...transferred them to the 10 frame last spring. They currently are in the brood chamber but have larva in them yet... This fall would you recommend pulling those out and placing new in there? I use plastic foundation, so they would need to draw out yet. Sound or unsound?
I bought your videos an learned a lot .i want to get more of them .i like keeping bees but need to learn more.i want to get on your chats but need help thank you for the videos
hi, thanks for the video, great knowledge for new beekepers :). have one suggestion though, please improve the video quality if possible :-)
Don i live in WV have two bad frames in a nuc do i need to cull them
Don, when do you use just starter strips and when do you use a full sheet of wax foundation? Thank you for you contribution to beekeeping!
in spring time is best for starter strips but we use them most times we also use full sheets when we sell nuc's so bees fill them out much faster
Thanks Don.
My frames are too old what I have to do with bees when I remove that ......I do not have any other frame in order to place them in place of frams those frm I have to remove. Wax .....what I have to do plz tell me
I made starter strips by cutting a plastic foundation sheet.
BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS KURSTAKI INSETTICIDA BIOLOGICO 500 GR DIPEL DF this what I use to deal with wax moth
Did that frame have larvae in it
+Jimmy McCune ====yep