Another Dead Hive: Broken Comb on Foundationless Frames

by Ginny. 0 Comments

We noticed the new hive had many dead bees at the entrance. When I opened it up I found that 3 of the biggest combs in the brood nest had broken and all but a dozen bees were dead. We are so disappointed.

Factors contributing to this failure:

1. We did not wire the frames. They are deeps, so wiring probably is necessary and would have prevented the breaks. The broken frames made up most of the brood nest and probably caused them to get chilled.

2. The weather has been typical Pacific Northwest spring which means wet and cold.

3. The hive had consumed all the sugar syrup in their feeder.

I measured the cells on the comb and sure enough, 5.2mm, the same as the remaining strip of plastic foundation I left in as a guide. I’ll have to figure out a new solution for a top guide, and good way to wire the frames. Maybe something like this would work with the plastic frames. I could drill holes and insert heavy wires. I would probably want to put in at least 2 since they are deep frames.

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