How to Get Your Bees to Draw Comb

hi and welcome a little bit honeybees I'm skinny bee man today's August 8 pretty warmer day it's about 95 degrees and heat index at about 102 somewhere in that neighborhood pretty warm I've managed to get the bees fed I went through about 30 hives on inspection and put in about 20 virgins today so I'm kind of taking a break here and we're going to make a short video get video requests wanting to know how to get your hives to draw wax foundation higher drop comb a lot of factors and get them to draw cone one is the B's some B's just naturally draw better wax more wax than others the lines I run here I have no treble they they draw wax all summer long that's one factor probably the biggest factor is you've got to feed and feed a lot for them to draw wax it takes roughly six pounds of nectar for them to draw a deep frame foundation so it takes a lot of resources to get them to draw temperature has a big effect bees can't draw wax much under 70 degrees it's not pliable enough for them to form and work to make the comb if it gets much above 95 degrees they don't draw a lot of wax it wants to sagged on them I mean you've picked out a frame of real fresh comb in a hot day and it's just like it'll just flop around Mike butter I mean it's got to support their weight so I want to say they draw wax really good between 70 and 90 degrees those factors in you got to have enough bees in the box you can't expect two frames of bees in a five frame Newt to draw a lot of wax they didn't they're taking care of young and foraging for the hive and that don't leave many bees to draw wax and the ones that draw the wax or the younger bees there they're less than two weeks old the ones that's drawing the wax older bees typically don't draw much wax so you got to have a hive that's fairly strong and if you're feeding you got all them factors taken care of there's a few tricks to get them to draw in summertime they don't want to draw so much in the summertime the springtime they're all really good in the summertime it's a little tougher but if you take a strong box and you go right down the bottom box and the brood chamber and say it's a five frame pull out two frames of whatever move it up or take it out there if it's honey and you don't need to take it out and I found that they draw starter strips much better than foundation full sheets of foundation and but they prefer full sheets of foundation over plastic but go right down the middle and if the rest of the frames are full that's another thing the frame your frame there's got to be they got to be pretty well congested tight and needing space from the draw wax they're just not going to draw wax just to be drawn wax so but you put that a starter strip right out in between two frames of brood and skip a frame and checkerboard another one in and if you've got a lot of bees in that box typically in two and a half days they ought to draw them two frames out if all they're the factors is taken care of you can put it in the in hung up in the second box in the summertime they won't draw it as fast they don't like anything separating their brood chamber so that's why they'll draw that out and then we'll show legs it become part of their brood chamber but if you move it to the top box in the summertime a lot of times they'll draw draw a drone comb on there in the reason being they need it for stores they're not in there they're the Queen's not lying and they're needing stores so they'll they'll make drone comb if you put it down in the bottom in the brood nest typically they'll withdraw work or sell not always but typically that's another thing if you've got a real strong hive and got a lot of bees in there but the Queen's not lying active I mean there she just barely putzing around it's too hot there's no not enough food they won't draw wax I've got a high of registrate over here beside I mean I was in it earlier today to double-deep by frame box she has five frames of capped brood in it two frames of laid up larvae and eggs open brood impact with bees I mean you they're just absolutely packed and I can put a frame drop a frame in there and they'll draw it out in a day and a half like I'm talking about and they'll draw it quick and I get a lot of wax controlled in the summertime I mean I got to put them to work doing something so I just pull framed out honey whatever that I'll use later in the fall and give them new new starter strips and and put them to work I need to get something out of my feed bill but they're getting a lot of this heat I don't know this for a fact but I'm thinking the main reason that the bees other than a dearth stopped laying in the summertime it is it gets some places gets so hot a clean larva which is just a worker larva and we turn it invert it and then make it into a queen larva they will die above 95 degrees if your incubator gets above 95 it'll kill them well you take it out here it's a hundred degrees and the heat index is 120 them bees have a horrible time trying to keep that hive cooled down to below 95 so when they do that I think they just shut down it's no advantage to them if they're going to kill the brood before they can raise it they just stop the land that's that's a big factor I noticed here two weeks ago we had a real hot spell we was in the heat index of around 120 for about two weeks and they really backed off on the lion and evidence as that is I was in the hives today you have capped brood you have no larvae because they've not been laying and that's coop back off and the whole box is just laid up with eggs and real small larvae so that's a good indication that they've quit laying for a period of time but that that's about it on the drawn wax main thing is to feed them it takes a lot of food and you can't just go out there and say well I won't watch it drop and start feeding and they're immediately going to start drawing wax they it's good they're gonna have to have it for a while get your stores build-up and and feel comfortable that their stuff coming in the door before they'll draw and you shouldn't have any trouble drawing wax I hope you enjoy the videos hope you learn something kind of being lazy it's been a pretty rough day and kind of just do a talk teach you a little bit of something but setting under the shade tree watching the bees flying work they're working pretty hard today but if you like the videos hit the subscribe button and the bell next to it you get notified when we put more out and you guys have a great day

Channel: Little Bits Honey Bees joe may

Views: 32,214

Rating: 4.9084744 out of 5

Keywords: drawn comb, beekeeping, beekeeper, honey bee, honey bees, little bits honey bees, skinny bee man, joe may, summer time

Id: YTSof9-Axhw

Length: 9min 17sec (557 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 07 2019