BBKA Forum

British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • Swarm made wild comb

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #8084  by paulz66
 01 Jul 2020, 14:16
So, I've got a bait hive with 4 frames in. Of course a swarm has come in and made comb in the wrong part. I wonder what I should do?
Thanks
 #8085  by AndrewLD
 01 Jul 2020, 15:10
Welcome to the forum and I am sure this has happened to us all at some time :D

The longer you wait the worse it will get and be the more difficult to sort. You need to cut out the wild comb and make up the bait hive to a full complement of frames, transfer them to a NUC whatever, but get the bee-space restored. Wild comb with brood worth keeping can either be strung in a frame with string (or whatever you fancy acting as a cradle or others have recommended it be put above a crown board with a feeder hole open and a QX underneath.
 #8089  by Steve 1972
 01 Jul 2020, 17:20
The only thing you can do with wild comb is cut it out to the same size of the frames you are using and fasten it in place with several elastic bands around the frames top to bottom..you may have to straighten it and shave a bit of with a sharp knife till you get the correct bee space in between frames as Andrew has said..the main thing when doing this is make sure you have the comb the correct way round..all the cells should be sloping slightly down over which may be hard to see if you are new to bees..the best thing to do is maybe stand the comb against something the same way you cut it out till you get the empty frame ready to fasten it in..have a look at some videos on youtube where cut outs are being done from places where bees have made there home in the wrong place..good luck..
 #8100  by AdamD
 02 Jul 2020, 19:57
Yes, get them onto straight comb! It can be a sticky and messy job and unfortunately some bees may not survive.

Move the hive a couple of metres away whilst you mess about with it, in this way the flying bees will return to the old site and not bother you. I would also suggest having a queen cage (or matchbox) with you, so if you find the queen, pop her in for safety. (Easy to say, not so easy to do if you are not familiar, but you can pick her up by the wings using thumb and forefinger or guide her into the cage with a finger or hive tool).

One thing you might like to consider is to use a second brood box if you find the queen. Place this over a queen excluder and over the brood box with the messy comb, place drawn comb and foundation above the excluder and put the queen in there. (If you have some brood for the top box that would be much better). Then feed the colony to encourage comb to be drawn and after 3 weeks, the bottom brood box and the wild comb can be removed.

The photo is of a 'cut-out' where a colony was recovered from somewhere unsuitable and the brood comb was fixed in an empty frame. You can see the masking tape being chewed through after a week or so. Later on the bees made good the gaps and filled the frame.

Image

Welcome to the forum btw.
 #8101  by Alfred
 02 Jul 2020, 20:26
There's an idea for a cut out- somehow get a frame or a otherwise suspended chunk of drawn comb into the cavity and hope the queen is on it when you take it out.
Unlikely, but a chance of a reprieve before the pest control chumps muscle in.