Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: and the trashing of my hives begins again  (Read 14606 times)

Offline duryeafarms

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 72
  • Gender: Male
Re: Re: and the trashing of my hives begins again
« Reply #20 on: June 11, 2013, 04:52:48 pm »
I see TBH as germane to the topic of naturally drawn comb. The spacing and comb type issues are exactly the same.

Offline Nature Coast Beek

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 124
  • Gender: Male
  • Suck it up, buttercup!
    • Both Feet In
Re: and the trashing of my hives begins again
« Reply #21 on: June 18, 2013, 10:20:35 am »
Well, honey frames are honey frames and they DO/WILL get messy with foundationless. What happens a lot is that two foundationless frames being drawn side by side will not usually draw out in a symetrical fashion from MY experience. If one foundationless frame starts to grow quicker than another, especially for honey storage, then wonky comb results and the frames turn into a jigsaw puzzle. Not a big deal to ME since I will be cutting a good portion of it apart during the honey harvest (cut comb). This is where BEEKEEPING comes into play. Start flanking your foundationless frames with two (2) already drawn (to your specifications) frames. I simply use plastic foundation frames there if I don't already have the nice, drawn foundationless frames available (yes, I do combo hives since I'm building resources out and not restricting myself unnecissarily ). Better yet, I flank a foundationless frame with two drawn, plastic foundation frames (TBH keeping has its limitations). And, for the love of Pete..........KEEP 'EM TIGHT. I actually run 11 frames in a 10 frame brood boxes and once I get two nice combs in the middle of a box, I just keep spreading and feeding into the middle.

It ain't rocket science....but is IS beekeeping!

Advanced Comb Management

Offline Jim134

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 3045
  • Gender: Male
    • Franklin County Beekeepers Association
Re: and the trashing of my hives begins again
« Reply #22 on: June 19, 2013, 07:24:18 am »
Well, honey frames are honey frames and they DO/WILL get messy with foundationless. What happens a lot is that two foundationless frames being drawn side by side will not usually draw out in a symetrical fashion from MY experience. If one foundationless frame starts to grow quicker than another, especially for honey storage, then wonky comb results and the frames turn into a jigsaw puzzle. Not a big deal to ME since I will be cutting a good portion of it apart during the honey harvest (cut comb). This is where BEEKEEPING comes into play. Start flanking your foundationless frames with two (2) already drawn (to your specifications) frames. I simply use plastic foundation frames there if I don't already have the nice, drawn foundationless frames available (yes, I do combo hives since I'm building resources out and not restricting myself unnecissarily ). Better yet, I flank a foundationless frame with two drawn, plastic foundation frames (TBH keeping has its limitations). And, for the love of Pete..........KEEP 'EM TIGHT. I actually run 11 frames in a 10 frame brood boxes and once I get two nice combs in the middle of a box, I just keep spreading and feeding into the middle.

It ain't rocket science....but is IS beekeeping!

Advanced Comb Management

Nature Coast Beek .......

 :stayontopic:
IMHO
I see you do not read this thread at all. It is about going foundationless in Langstroth hives.



                    BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may  remember,involve me and I'll understand"
        Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways."
 John F. Kennedy
Franklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

Offline Nature Coast Beek

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 124
  • Gender: Male
  • Suck it up, buttercup!
    • Both Feet In
Re: and the trashing of my hives begins again
« Reply #23 on: June 19, 2013, 09:52:24 am »
Jim...un-bunch those panties of yours and reread the post....comprehension is fundamental. Does 11 frames in a 10 frame box smack of TBH beekeeping to ya? Langs are what I specifically discussed. Yes, I also disclosed a good video on straight combs for TBH keepers interested. Good to know we there are lots of bored beekeepers out there! I suppose the moderators aren't doing their job, Jim? 50+ years of beekeeping with nothing constructive to offer....ever?

Offline buzzbee

  • Ken
  • Global Moderator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 5930
  • Gender: Male
    • N Central Pa Beekeepers Facebook Page
Re: and the trashing of my hives begins again
« Reply #24 on: June 20, 2013, 10:09:04 pm »
UMM,
nature coast and everyone that reads this,
You all need to chill your jets a bit. I don't know if you realize it but the mods here are volunteers and have a life outside of the forum. trash talking mod staff is a fast way to the exit. I am sorry that when nice weather gets here we are not scouring every post and every thread. tarsh the mod staff and it will lighten our load a bit if you catch my point.
Now everone relax, and dicuss the topic at hand,not demean each other.
If my panties get in a bunch, it may not come unknotted without casualties.

Offline T Beek

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2775
  • Gender: Male
Re: and the trashing of my hives begins again
« Reply #25 on: August 28, 2013, 08:00:49 am »
I suppose Beekeeping requires beekeepers to regularly "trash" hives, according to some. 

Personally I would'nt (don't) use the word trashing, but manipulating supers and frames, "un-sticking" parts that get stuck together or cutting comb that gets too wide is all part of the process of keeping honeybees, otherwise we'd all be back in the trees, hanging from ropes and ladders sticking our hands into colonies or cutting and killing.  If one doesn't enjoy that part of keeping bees they can keep bees in logs, skeps etc......or use Warre' hives for minimal intrusions.

Which is better?  It greatly depends on the person.  ACCEPTANCE of natural laws; a great trait for anyone keeping bees.

The ONLY experts are the bees...........shhhh............listen..........they are always telling us something...........if we would only listen and observe.  8-)
"Trust those who seek the truth, doubt those who say they've found it."

Online Michael Bush

  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 19807
  • Gender: Male
    • bushfarms.com
Re: and the trashing of my hives begins again
« Reply #26 on: August 28, 2013, 11:25:04 am »
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfaqs.htm#framespacing
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesframewidth.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoundationless.htm#whatif

One bad comb leads to another. One good comb leads to another. If you have bad comb, wishful thinking will not fix the next comb. It will be messed up unless you make the last comb a straight one by whatever means is necessary. Having a frame you can tie a comb into is good to have. Then you can always create a straight comb. Another solution is to find a straight comb and put it at the point they are building comb and put the messed up comb at the front (assuming you don’t tie it into frames or remove it). Empty frames between drawn brood combs will keep them busy building straight combs. Just don’t spread them too thin. They need to be able to fill that gap with festooning bees quickly.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin

Offline jredburn

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 133
  • Gender: Male
    • Poorboybees
Re: and the trashing of my hives begins again
« Reply #27 on: October 31, 2013, 02:03:46 pm »
Billiebee
Sometimes you can get the bees to draw straight comb by turning the box so the frames all point in the same direction as the cross comb.  Sometimes.
i do a cutouts here in SW FL. and have found honeycomb that was 2 1//2" thick in places where there was lots of room.  Open air nests as a matter of fact.   That's honey comb not brood comb.  If the bees want to build wide comb, them let them do their thing.