# Heavy Duty Comb



## Gene Weitzel (Dec 6, 2005)

Here is a couple of shots from a cutout we did yesterday. This is the second time I have seen this kind of comb, even the brood comb is heavy like this:



















Here is a link to the entire album (56 photos), some are a little out of focus (my wife is not the best photographer):

http://s210.photobucket.com/albums/bb226/geneweitzel/Fall Cutout/

If you browse through the album, you will notice that their not wearing much protection, probably not AHB. There were 18 frames of brood and it took 3 deeps to accommodate all the comb. Since the comb was so sturdy, we even strapped in the honey comb and gave it back to them. You could hold a frame sized piece of sealed honey comb flat by one end and it would not break!


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

They are a special engineering bee, they engineered the comb to take the vibrations of the truck going down the road.

The cell walls and caps - how much thicker do you think they are in comparison to "normal" comb? Be interesting to see if they construct the same way in the new hive. Keep us posted.

MM


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## Gene Weitzel (Dec 6, 2005)

MapMan said:


> They are a special engineering bee, they engineered the comb to take the vibrations of the truck going down the road.
> 
> The cell walls and caps - how much thicker do you think they are in comparison to "normal" comb? Be interesting to see if they construct the same way in the new hive. Keep us posted.
> 
> MM


I would say the cell walls and caps are at least twice as thick as what I normally see. The main "rib" or "foundation" of the comb and the areas where it is attached are much thicker. If I were to scrape all the cells off on both sides, I would be left with a piece of foundation nearly 1/8" thick.


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

That's amazing stuff! For comparison purposes, why don't you take a cross-section cut from some honeycomb from this cutout and some normal comb side-by-side and get some closeup pictures? Mighty interesting to see. Thanks-

MM


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## papa bear (Nov 1, 2005)

good pics. what size hose were you using? and were the bees docile enough to not wear veils? do you use any kind of spray or smoke?


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## Gene Weitzel (Dec 6, 2005)

papa bear said:


> good pics. what size hose were you using? and were the bees docile enough to not wear veils? do you use any kind of spray or smoke?


The bees were extremely docile, hence no veils. The rubber gloves were used only because these bees stuck to the comb really well and it was difficult to keep from inadvertently pinning a bee while handling the comb. We used only a small amount of smoke when we initially opened the cavity.

My bee vac uses about 6 foot of 2" clear PVC hose connected to the vac box and then we have about 8 foot of 1" PVC connected to the end of the 2". This arrangement provides a little more suction at the tip of the 1" hose, but when the bees pass into the 2" they slow way down and just kind of tumble or fly into the vac cage. This colony contained about 12 lbs of bees and we ended up with only about a dozen dead bees.


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## Gene Weitzel (Dec 6, 2005)

MapMan said:


> That's amazing stuff! For comparison purposes, why don't you take a cross-section cut from some honeycomb from this cutout and some normal comb side-by-side and get some closeup pictures? Mighty interesting to see. Thanks-
> 
> MM


That's a pretty good idea, I'll try to do that this weekend and post the pic below the ones above. I may even try to get a shot with a metric ruler so you can gage the cell spacing.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

Thanks for sharing. That is some heavy wax.

Wife took the pictures huh? Suuuuuurrrrrreeee!


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

Gene, every now and then I've seen an inquiry on beesource about which bees produce the most wax. Some people are more interested in the wax than the honey. 
If you have the queen and she passes this trait onto her daughters you may have the makings of a strain of bees that could be developed just for this purpose. This could be your retirement plan  Adrian.


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## Gene Weitzel (Dec 6, 2005)

Adrian Quiney WI said:


> Gene, every now and then I've seen an inquiry on beesource about which bees produce the most wax. Some people are more interested in the wax than the honey.
> If you have the queen and she passes this trait onto her daughters you may have the makings of a strain of bees that could be developed just for this purpose. This could be your retirement plan  Adrian.


I do have the queen, but its a little early to tell if they will survive the removal. So far so good. This is actually the second colony I have found in the area that builds wax like this. The first one absconded on me after a few days. Hopefully, I'll have better luck with this one. One factor that may help is that its late in the season and I have typically had fewer cutouts abscond this time of year as the push is on to be ready for winter.

Of course, the other question is, did they build like this in response to some environmental factor which I have now removed them from or is it "in their genes". Only time will tell.


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