MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 55those sections and foundation this year, or had I better cut it outand put in new foundation?A. If it is clean, with no remains of candied honey, use itagain.Q. How and when is it best to have brood-combs drawn out,or made from full sheets of comb foundation?A, Give such frames of foundation any time when bees aregathering more than enough honey for their daily needs, if youthink they will not stop gathering before they have time to finishthe combs. Of course, that's as much as to say that the very besttime is at the beginning of a harvest that you have good reasonto expect will last two weeks or more. A strong colony, ofcourse, will need less time than a weak one.Q. Can I put frames with full sheets of foundation betweentwo combs and get good worker-combs that are not stretched toomuch at the top? I mean without wiring.A. You may, by using foundation splints or very heavy foundation.Even then you will not always get the best results betweentwo drawn-out combs, for too often these combs will bebulged into the comb between them.Q. Will bees draw out foundation as soon when it has beenin the frame three months as they would if only in the framethree weeks? I like to put my foundation in the frames in thewinter time, when I have plenty of time. This is to be the newfoundation just made.A. Speaking very strictly, I suppose the fresher the foundationis, the better. But I have used foundation that had beenfastened in four or five years, and I've some question whether thebees made any great difference between that and that which hadbeen put in only four or five days. At any rate, I believe it goodpolicy to get it ready in advance, as you propose.Q. A successful honey producer says full sheets of foundationare drawn down to the bottom-bar very much better whenplaced in a super than in the brood-nest. Is this so?A. Sure.Comb Foundation Gnawed by Bees.—Q. What is the reasonthat the bees gnaw the foundation starters in the brood-chamber?I have found two or three starters lying at the bottom of theframes. A few days later I found a strip that they had carriedout in front of the hive.A. The starter may have been insufficiently fastened; theremay have been something objectionable about the foundation ; itmay have been that the bees were not gathering, and at such a