# Coating Supercell?



## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

in one of those threads about cutting HSC down to mediums I asked this question to Bullseye who runs mostly Permacomb (plastic)
he suggested melting some wax and adding enough honey so when it cools you end up with a paste you can spread on the frames, sounds like a good idea
I think you need to do something to encourage acceptance. I have enough to try a couple different schemes in the spring

Dave


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## Sundance (Sep 9, 2004)

How many colonies????

The best acceptance has been to either
start with a package or do a "shake down"
onto HSC. You close off all entrances with
hardware cloth and leave them closed in for
a couple of days. Then remove entrance blocks.

You can also spray the frames with sugar water
and honey be healthy (or a drop or two of lemon
grass oil).


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## mobees (Jul 26, 2004)

Was wondering what is the convention on measuring supercell frames to get 4.9. Flat side to flat side of hexagon or top point to top point? With calipers measurements would probably be more accurate that the 10 cell ruler test. Has anybody measured top point to bottom point to get a reading?


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## wade (Apr 1, 2006)

Get a mm ruler and measure starting on the left cell wall side, count 10 cells, and stop at the right side of that last cell.


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## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

wade

that's the way you do it with regular comb but it doesn't work with HSC
it's because the cell wall is thicker in HSC than with wax comb
with wax the cell wall is 0.1 mm so the ID of a 4.9 mm cell is 4.8 mm
I've measured HSC and it's 4.82 mm ID near the top and they say it tapers a bit smaller toward the bottom
The old "measure across 10 cells" thing will give you a bad number 

Dave

[ November 30, 2006, 05:22 PM: Message edited by: drobbins ]


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## wade (Apr 1, 2006)

Awright then, in that case I suggest it not be done that way.


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## BULLSEYE BILL (Oct 2, 2002)

>he suggested melting some wax and adding enough honey so when it cools you end up with a paste you can spread on the frames, 

Thanks, but not exactly the message I was trying to make. What I have done with good results during a cut-out was is to take some of their comb honey, (honey in the comb, scrapings from the top or bottom of the frame, etc.), and squish it up with the hive tool into a paste. Spread it on the comb like icing, it is not required to coat the whole frame, just a portion of it for quick acceptance.

When adding a full box of PC, I will usually put used frames of PC in the # 4 and 6 positions only and not worry about spraying or coating the rest at all.

In the end, bees will do what bee do. They will always surprise you. You can introduce them in every imaginable way and most times they will stay/accept or not. Even trapping them in for a couple of days is not fool-proof. I have had one bug out of the HSC even after capping some brood, others were as happy as a bug in a rug never having to be trapped inside. I had some prefer the HSC, like PC, and others only use it as a last resort when all other space was filled.

Experiment, try it in different ways and what works will work for you.


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