What if i want wax?

[beefree]

Is there any way to convince the ladies to draw more comb?  Are there any beelines bred for more wax production?  Wouldn't it be really nice to have one colony that was a heavy wax producer so i could use it to draw out foundation that i could then use when installing packages in new hives?  I have this hangup about efficiency... watching the bees is so calming... until i start to think of ways to make this more efficient ;-)

[Robo]

If you want efficiency, try Permacomb. The queen can start laying the day you install your package.

Actually, excessive comb building is a trait that is undesirable and queen breeders discriminate against it.  Bees with this trait tend to build excessive burr and brace comb.

[golfpsycho]

If you figure it out, let me know.  The "gift colony"  has been very active and I thought I had it straightened out.  Silly me.  They have no qualms about stripping the wax off the plasitc based foundation and building burr and brace comb all over the place.   This creates another problem.  I have noticed that when they are doing this, they are creating more congestion in the brood chamber and often begin swarm preperations.  Where's my knife??   I'm going in!!

[Bee Boy]

Now if I remember correctly you are supposed to keep the frames a little bit farther apart than usual. Just a little farther or else they build burr comb.

[beefree]

i may try the permacomb eventually, just to see if it really does mean more honey for me... but what i really want is more wax.  To make candles, and lotion, and lip balm, and cork grease for my recorder... and drawn comb for new hives, and already drawn comb for honey supers on mew hives so they don't have to draw it themselves... and stuff like that.  I want to be able to harvest  wax...
beefree

[cjsscreen]

try taking off the honey after the flow and feeding heavily and they should draw out more comb if you offer foundation just dont plan on harvesting all that sugar honey that they will put in it.

[Markinaust]

Here is my 2 cents worth,

I am led to believe that the Corcasion strain of honey bees are profuse wax builders. However I also believe that the same strain is also a prolific swarming strain so I wouldn’t suggest a beginner to start out with them.


Cheers


Mark

[beefree]

i will try feeding them heavily after honey flow/harvest this year, and just let them keep that last super to help get them through the winter.  If i can get more than one shallow drawn, i'll remove one to startup the new hive next year.  Since this is my first year doing this, i'll stick to my Italians, but i expect i'll want to eventually try other strains and i'll choose them using wax-building as one of the criteria.  Thanks for the info and input, everybody!
beefree