I got on the phone today with Mr. John Seets. He sells
Permacomb.
I have just received my second order from him. I was calling to let him know I had received it. I also figured I would ask him a few questions. I will share my enlightenment with you.
1. I am getting ready to pull a box fo frames for extraction. After extracting the honey can I return the frames to the hive? Or do I have to prep them again?
You can return the to the hive you do not have to prep them again.
2. I have noticed that my worker cells in permacomb when capped are domed shaped like a drone cell but they are actual worker cells. Is this normal.
Not to worry, this happens it can also be seasonal in some areas. They are not drone cells but worker cells.
After John and I discussed some more details about this it basically boiled down to this in my opinion. I have bees coming from rite cell frames which tends to cause the workers to be physically larger. And so as the queen gets use to working with the permacomb the bees will become smaller (this is a good thing) and the cells will be less pronounced.
John and I discussed several things including my desire to cause the bees make more brood and less honey in the frames. Anyone notice how the bees just do what they want to do and don't consult the beekeeper? I have been preparing the permacomb by soaking the frames in sugar water with Honey B Healthy in order for the bees to accept the frames more readily. The bees do that and then turn around and convert the mix to honey. Which I don't want I want brood in these frames. I might as well be putting a jar at the entrance. If all they are going to do is suck up my sugar water mix and make honey out of it. John explained that I can also rub beeswax on the permacomb as a means of gaining acceptance of the permacomb in the hive. I am going to try that with my next batch of permacomb.
Now mind you I am not complaiging I have lots of honey to extract and that is great but I want the hive stronger and I want the honey to not be my sugar water mix that bees have decided is a quick food source. Also I cant say that this is always going to happen. Hive one took the sugar water mix and must have spit it on the ground because the queen is laying in those frames with no problem except that she is a leftist bee. So I can't say that the sugar water mix is going to always convert to honey but that ican happen.
I also discussed the weight matter since I was so caught off guard by how heavy the box was. A full 10 frames in a medium of permacomb is over 60 pounds. This was correctlly confirmed by others in another thread but I figured I would mention it here. John is a fan of the 9 cell honey supers. I explained that I had intended this for brood but once again the bees didn't consult me.
Sincerely,
Brendhan