# Burr comb - how much to remove and when?



## bison (Apr 27, 2011)

Hi - newbee here - proud keeper of three new hives! I am wondering what to do about burr comb. Specifically, about a week ago I added a second brood box to my fastest-growing hive. When I took a look at it today and pulled out a frame or two, the bees had built a lot of burr comb that "glued" the upper frames to the lower ones, and when I peek down into the slot created by the empty frame I can see a fairly significant amount of burr comb scattered around in the area between the two boxes. Do I need to do anything about this? I did scrape most of it off of the two frames I pulled from the upper box, but am reluctant to take the upper box off to remove the burr from the top of the lower box.

Also, the burr comb I cut off was loaded with syrup. I feel bad tossing this, should I leave it out near the hive for the bees to scavenge?

Thanks! I have a lot to learn but it's a ton of fun so far!


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## Jean-Yves (Oct 27, 2010)

Hello Bison,
Did you make your own hive supers? If the dimensions are not correct, if there is too much space between the upper and lower body, I believe the bees would have to build a burr comb. Thanks


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

First you need to assess why they are building the comb. Some is normal from time to time, but it sounds like you have a LOT. If they're burring up your box rather than drawing waiting foundation, you may have a beespace issue (a greater than beespace gap between surfaces in the colony). Do they have somewhere to draw drone cells? That's one of the main reasons IMO for lots of burr comb: boxes full of worker-sized foundation, especially in spring when the drone-rearing urge is strong: they have to have a way to dissipate that urge to draw out comb for and rear drones. I have a foundationless frame in every box for drone comb; culling it becomes part of my IPM routine, and then they're not having to build the stuff where it becomes a management hassle.

That said, I typically scrape burr and brace comb whenever I can. All it's really good for is crushing bees (including queen) when you put the box back on . If you scrape it I wouldn't leave it laying about outside... it'll only encourage robbing and skunks/*****/ants. Sugar's cheap: compost it.


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## bison (Apr 27, 2011)

MY boxes are commercially bought so I assume they are standard size (though I'll measure). They are building out the foundation nicely as well, and there's not THAT much burr comb (the piece I cut off was maybe 5" long by 3/4"). 

I assume that with a full box of empty foundation they'd be able to make drone cells wherever they want... but what do I know! 

Is if far to say that as long as they're building other comb productively then don't worry about burr comb too much, but rather remove it as a maintenance item rather than a specific thing to target?


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

bison said:


> Is if far to say that as long as they're building other comb productively then don't worry about burr comb too much, but rather remove it as a maintenance item rather than a specific thing to target?


Yes. But understand that if you have commercial foundation, the cell size is likely to be worker cells. So they'll either draw some weird transitional cells on it trying to make it into drone cells, or keep drawing the drone comb in between boxes. Or both.


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## bison (Apr 27, 2011)

Gotcha - I looked again at the comb I cut off and all of it was full of honey (quite delicious, I must say!). I suspect I'm being overly sensitive to small-ish amounts of burr. Will keep an eye on it and post photos if I get a lot again.


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## Bsweet (Apr 9, 2010)

Have heard two ideas on burr comb. 1. keep it cleaned out when ever you find it. 2. leave it alone the bees will just build it back after you remove it, and alot of times they raise drones in it and its better to have them there than in the frames. I guess its dealer choice. Jim


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Between the boxes I always leave it. Remove it when it's in your way or it's wild comb that is going to lead the bees astray on the next comb. Otherwise they will just rebuild it anyway. Why work so hard to make them work so hard?


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## minz (Jan 15, 2011)

I just did an inspection and had just a ton below the frames, 2 inches anyway, must have been close to the screen bottom board. I removed it because I am attempting to get them to draw out the plastic foundation. Starting to think I made a mistake since a large amount of it is capped brood. Fatal mistake? Minor mistake? Did I just kill off a bunch of drones? 
One of the two hives started drawing out the plastic and has about 3 drawn out- should I add a brood box? Just added 4 lb bag of sugar in a 1:1 so it may have to wait a few days.


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