# How to Regress, get brood on 1 1/4" bars and remove plastic foundation



## mythomane (Feb 18, 2009)

You should have regressed first with honey super cell or pf-100s.


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## Sam-Smith (Jul 26, 2009)

My guess is your using foundationless tbh? Don't push all the new comb together it wont fit, instead since you have some 1-1/4" drawn bars remove the old plastic stuff (not all at once depending on how much you have) and replace each removed plastic bar with a new empty bar, I would move the plastic stuff away from the brood area and let the bees draw new comb on the replacement bars. Hopefully they will abandon the plastic foundation bars once the brood has emerged and use it for honey/pollen storage. If not at least you will have a solid 1-1/4" tb broodnest without the old plastic foundation, then you just keep moving it away from the nest center. I realised yesterday that I would need to do this with my cutouts, since the queen doesn't want to lay eggs in the old cutout comb prefering the new comb instead, I ended up with brood on the outside of the comb and pollen/honey in the center exactly the shape of the old cutout comb.


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## Adam Foster Collins (Nov 4, 2009)

Yes, I'm using foundationless top bars. At this point, I have nearly 16 bars with comb, and about half have some plastic in them from the nuc lang frames. These are all on 1 1/2" bars. The new combs (every second one) are on 1 1/4" bars.

Adam


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## Adam Foster Collins (Nov 4, 2009)

Sam, you say in your post:

"I would move the plastic stuff away from the brood area and let the bees draw new comb on the replacement bars. ... then you just keep moving it away from the nest center."

How do I do that exactly? I can see just lifting the one furthest back from the entrance (at the end) and replacing it with an empty bar, but what about ones in the center of the nest? How do I get those out without moving the queen and a lot of brood?

maybe these are dumb questions... but still, I can't quite see how it should be done.

Adam


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## Countryboy (Feb 15, 2009)

_How do I do that exactly? I can see just lifting the one furthest back from the entrance (at the end) and replacing it with an empty bar, but what about ones in the center of the nest? How do I get those out without moving the queen and a lot of brood?

maybe these are dumb questions... but still, I can't quite see how it should be done._

Slide the bars apart at the center of the broodnest, until you have a gap wide enough to put in an empty top bar.


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## Adam Foster Collins (Nov 4, 2009)

haha. Okay, so you don't actually take that bar with plastic out at all - just slide it back over and over until its back far enough to be out of the brood nest?


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## Sam-Smith (Jul 26, 2009)

Yes  or take the bar (with plastic foundation) and place it at the end of the broodnest then replace it with a blank, same result different approach, unwanted bars are worked to the outside of the broodnest.


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