# Different bar sizes--how do I know where the bees want brood/honey comb??



## Delta Bay (Dec 4, 2009)

If there is too much space between the combs they will build comb/ burr comb as in your pics to maintain their bee space.

Can you explain in more detail as to what bar sizes they are building in this way? If they are on wider bars than 1 3/8th" this type of comb building would be expected.

It is best to use all the same size bars throughout. Either 1 1/4" or 1 3/8th" your choice and use 1/4" spacers when and only when they are called for. That would be when bees start to build thicker storage comb that extends under the adjacent bar in the direction they are building.

I find that giving them less space to work in helps keep the combs on track. I use a follower board for that.


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## Tara (Jun 17, 2010)

Delta Bay--

Thanks!

I'd cut 1 1/4" bars for the brood area, and 1 1/2" bars for the honeycomb area. 

In the case you see in the pictures, I was adapting comb from a mini nuc I'd made, and had stapled the top bar of that comb onto a flat top bar that fit into the TBH. They'd built some honeycomb above the brood on the original 1 1/4" bars, so I put an empty bar between the thinner comb and the fat comb, so they could fill in as necessary. Instead of building a new comb on the bar between combs, they just starting building out this way. Should I just cut it off and remove all separating bars and push the old combs together?


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## Delta Bay (Dec 4, 2009)

> Should I just cut it off and remove all separating bars and push the old combs together?


As Oldtimer's advice I would do the same. You may have to trim some of the comb/capped honey back near the top of the comb so you can push the bars together. Just enough so the bars push together tight. The bees will chew and repair to suit themselves. If they push together with little resistance that is fine and you may not need to do anything but remove the burr comb.

I would think that there was uncapped honey/nectar on the upper portion of the combs you separated by adding an empty bar. So instead of building on the empty bar they extend the open honey/nectar cells to fill in the space. The end result being what you see.


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## Tara (Jun 17, 2010)

So does no one actually use different sized bars for the brood area and the honeycomb area?


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## Tara (Jun 17, 2010)

Great, that'll make it easier cutting the bars and managing them!

I cut off that bit of wild comb and could hardly see where it had been attached on the main comb afterwards. At that point everything fit together real well. 

Thanks all!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

How you know is when the comb is off center. The next one needs to be wider or skinnier depending on which way it is off.


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## 11x (May 14, 2009)

i let the bees decide how much brood area thay want and how much honey area thay want. works just fine with all the same size bars


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## 11x (May 14, 2009)

going to let god sort them out. if thay make it then that is good, if thay die then i dont want them in my apiary. has work fine so far for me and my parterner. 6 years and counting with natural comb/no foundation and not so much as 1 single treatment of any kind. the only thing i will feed is a new split but thay only get it for a few days


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