draw wax-compared to plugin out the cell that the queen needs to lay in--getting your frames drawn out is key to
I have not noticed that comb building is the key to build up???
What I have noticed is
- a size of the start
- the heat economy of the hive: insulation and reduced ventilation
- a limiting factor is when the colony gets more members. A queen lays the frames full in a week
and it is difficult to get more brood. If you think to add combs, bees cannot keep them warm.
Brood cycle is 3 weeks and to feed couple of days has no meaning.
When I started beekeeping, I bought lots of swarms. I noticed that 2 langsroth boxes of bees is optimal size. It is 8 lbs swarm bees.
I feeded the swarms that they may draw the combs in a week.
Then they got from nature the food. 8 lbs bees brought 80 lbs honey to be extracted. Further more the colonies drew 3 boxes foundations . The year was something 1966 and 67.
4 lbs colony could not get surplus. Honey and brood were in same frames. It was a prison of small space.
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