My 3 hives are one year old and I was only able to get about 6 frames of comb drawn last year for my medium depth honey supers. Our flow here started about 1-2 weeks ago and is now in full force. My bees are starting to fill the frames of comb nicely but also need to draw comb out on the foundation so I am wondering what this effort takes away from the honey production?
Also what does manipulating the honey frames do in regard to disrupting the honey production. I can see they ignore the undrawn frames unless I move them toward the center. Luckily I've been able to keep the queens from going into the supers by keeping the center frames that are full of nectar in the center and making sure there is plenty of room in the bottom 2 deeps for her to lay.
I suppose my question boils down to will I get a poor honey crop due to using undrawn foundation?
I am trying to produce/sell my honey to raise $ for The Chordoma Foundation and I am sitting here wondering if this year, which has already been touted as the best flow in 70 years, is going to be merely a year where my bees draw out foundation for next year?
I feel blessed to have my hives in good health for the flow but am, so far, disappointed in the quantity of drawn & filled frames. I told the founder of this organization I would be at their yearly meeting in Bethesda, MD in July if I got a good honey crop and that I could set up and sell honey right there and turn over the proceeds during the same weekend but I don't see it coming out to where I'll have the quantity to do so at this point. Maybe I am just too impatient/
Thanks-Howard