That?s an awesome well written instruction.
The weak hive are comprised of rubberbanded comb. I?m a new beek and don?t have access to the comb that replaces the brood frame I take from good hive. I?ve got frames w and w/o foundation and some piece mail comb I could puzzle together but it would be a pain. What?s the best choice ?
Comb is gold. Bees spend a lot of resources and energy to make comb. Whatever you can do to reduce that effort, most especially in weak colonies, will go a long way to helping them. The comb banded and pieced together does not have to be perfect. The bees will rework the wax into how they want it. You listed additional hives that are doing very well. There may be some drawn combs in those that could be brought over to help this situation.
If there is a lot of empty space in the hive then foundation frames are recommended to minimize cross combs. If putting in only one or two new frames then foundationless frame set in between existing fully drawn frames can work great.
We could try to help guide you with a frame configuration if you would post the secret code (or pictures) of what you currently have in each box. See below. There is no perfect arrangement of the combs. Though there are guidelines. This is a point where beekeepers can differ a lot in how they prefer to setup the boxes. I submit that as long as the guidelines are followed the details do not matter and are not worth arguing over. Simply because the important fact to understand is that regardless best efforts and intent on the part of the beekeeper, the bees are going to completely undo most of it to reorganize the whole box(es) the way THEY want it.
Your objective at the initial setup of a brood nest is to:
- keep brood together so it is warm and easiest for the cluster to care for,
- put empty drawn comb next to brood for queen to keep going uninterrupted,
- put resources (honey/pollen) next to brood and empty comb for the nurse bees,
- put foundation or new bare open frames in between drawn combs so the new frames get built straight.
After that initial setup, leave the brood nest to the bees to do whatever they want with it.
F = foundation
E = empty drawn comb, includes cutout piece meal comb, banded comb
B = frame with brood on it, includes piece meal comb, banded comb
H = resource frame of honey, syrup, pollen
L = open bare frame, foundationless
S = feeder, syrup frame feeder. If no S use H
For Example: ... assuming 10 frame boxes. What you have and what you could end up with may look something like this. There are certainly other arrangements/combinations. Depends on what you have for frames and comb to work with.
Top box:
SEEEBBHFFF
Bottom box:
HEEEBEHFFF
Quote from a very experienced and very successful beekeeper:
The bees spend a lot of time and effort undoing whatever the beekeeper did. Every time you lift a lid you are a disruption despite your best intentions. When going into a hive have a very specific purpose and do only what is needed for
YOU. Leave the rest to the bees. They do not need you. Remember that.
I wish you all the successes at accomplishing your goals with this weak hive.
Hope that helps!
