Disclaimer:

This blog explains how I keep bees. It works for me, it might not work for you. Use my methods at your own risk. Always wear protective clothing and use a smoker when working bees.

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Monday, April 1, 2019

Bee Strategy: Easy Way To Draw Comb In April

The bee strategy is: by adding a new box of frames with foundation on this strong overwintered colony. The bees will draw out the foundation because I am feeding them syrup. The queen will move up and start laying on the new comb. After a couple weeks, as the daily temperatures warm up, I will remove the bottom box. I will use the bottom box for package bees that come at the end of April. This will give me an advantage of starting package bees on drawn out comb. The package bees will increase their population quicker because the queen has the whole box of already drawn comb to work with.
  If I had started the package bees on the new foundation, the population of bees would grow slower. As I only have about 7500 bees in a 3 lb package of bees working on the foundation.
 Using a strong overwintered colony to draw out the new foundation, I will have probably 15,000 bees working on it today. As the population grows in the overwintered hive, there will be more workers to make comb on the frames. The bees should have this new box drawn out in about three weeks.