Comb on the inner cover

[bmacior]

well, I may be late with this, seeing how this thread has turned into a discussion about law, but back to the original question.

My new package hive blew over last week when it was less than a week old. (the one next to it didn't, go figure) I was starting it with foundtionless frames. (the one next to it had foundation and would have survived the fall). Any way the comb they had started to build broke off.  After some consideration,  I took a hot knife and slit the top of the comb, and with the frame up side down put the comb over the starter strips. Melted some bees wax (parafin would work) and "glued" the comb to the frame.  Checked it yesterday, it's covered with bees and they've added to it.  Here's your chance to have comb honey, if you don't want to go foundationless. :lol:

Barb

[dish]

We just went into our one-week old hive and found the same: the bees have built comb on the inner cover!

Before installing the package, my husband checked to make sure the hive was level, which is important with the foundationless frames we're using--but I'm guessing we're inclining it too much toward the front (for drainage) because the bees built this comb diagonally. I think we'll adjust it perfectly level, at least until fall, because rain isn't a big issue during spring and summer here in California.

The other mistake we made was adding a shim to accomodate a baggie feeder. When our first baggie leaked--lessons learned: don't use baggies with plastic slides, and don't put the opening on the downward incline--we decided to put the can of syrup that had come with the package back on. (We'd kept it refrigerated just in case.) We added another super to accommodate the can, but we should have taken off the shim, which sat just below the inner cover. That gave the bees some extra space to build diagonally like they wanted to. Another lesson learned: don't leave any extra space in the hive!

I appreciate Barb's feedback about how she cut out the comb and waxed it to the foundation. That's just what we're going to try this afternoon. I'm a little concerned that the comb is absolutely covered with bees--should we shake them over the hive before we try to frame the foundation? I'm also worried about losing the queen.

Thanks to all for the info here. It's so helpful to us newbies.

 

[Michael Bush]

It looks pretty removable to me.  Came right out with the inner cover...