Merely feeding the colony sugar syrup may not be sufficient to motivate the bees to work harder. The colony also needs a reason to draw out comb, such as when they sense a need to accommodate more cells for brood rearing or when the volume of incoming nectar needs additional storage space. It requires a great deal of calories from nectar and honey. If existing empty comb is available, there is no need for drawing out new comb.Ĭomb is a metabolic investment. 1 Second, if the bees take the syrup, it does not guarantee they’ll build new comb. Though not personal, beekeepers have responded to this affront by adding various enticements such as scant amounts of vanilla, anise, lemongrass, even chamomile tea. First, with natural nectar available, some colonies will decline your generosity.
When a colony balks at drawing out foundation, the consensus of beekeepers rallies around the advice, “You need to feed them a little sugar syrup.” I have mixed feelings about the universality of this suggestion.
#Bee drawing how to#
Then the question becomes how to fix the underlying problems that show up in the colony’s reluctance to draw comb. If the colony isn’t healthy or feeling optimistic about its future, the bees won’t be in the mood to invest the time and energy into expanding. When comb building is lacking, I can usually find one or more of these conditions are likewise lacking. These are the dots that line themselves up and comb building is simply not an issue. When the colony is firing away on all cylinders, beekeeping is quite enjoyable and almost effortless. in an area where the likelihood of encountering pesticides and pollutants is minimized.foraging on a diverse mixture of floral sources with a generous nectar flow,.the strong colonies with a robust population of bees,.My most productive hives that give me the least amount of grief are: I’ve found a rather elusive set of five, highly inter-related and intra-connected circumstances in which problems and challenges can be greatly minimized, irrespective of one’s experience. On occasion, there are some colonies where the conditions line up and everything falls neatly into place. It tells me something is not quite right, otherwise the bees would be hustling around filling in every nook and cranny with comb. In some respects, a colony’s unwillingness to draw out comb becomes a diagnostic tool. While the lack of comb drawing activity frustrates me, I find the need to revisit the basics of honey bee biology and contemplate what bees do and why they do it, as well as why they won’t.
In these cases, I typically fall back to my default response and ponder what message the bees are trying to convey, often with the grand illusion that I’m sharp enough to pay attention to their signals. I thought my logic was sound and the opportunity to expand was mutually agreeable, but instead they opted to swarm, or in some cases, malinger in a stubborn malaise of indifference. There have been more than a few times my bees refused to accept my gracious invitation to draw out frames of brand new foundation. It also allows the colony to organize the resources for maximum efficiency, at least until we open the hive and start moving frames around. Comb is used for raising brood, curing nectar into honey, and storing honey and pollen. The comb is the residential structure that allows the bees to cluster for thermoregulation. It’s also a necessity for the survival and productivity of the colony. Producing wax and constructing the honey comb is second nature to a worker bee.