# Swarm not drawing comb



## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I hived a large swarm Tuesday. I put them in a deep with 3 frames of drawn comb. One of the combs had open larvae in it, the other two were empty. The larvae was to keep them from leaving and I put the 2 other frames in to give the queen a place to lay. I noticed them carrying pollen in today so I figured it was safe to check the hive. Both of the formerly empty frames of comb are full of nectar and pollen. The cells that were empty on the frame with brood now have eggs in them. They have not drawn any white comb. The other 7 frames in the deep are waxed Ritecell. The only comb they had made was "wonky" comb coming off the face of the Ritecell on the two closest frames to the 3 drawn frames. One on each side of the 3 frames.

I've never hived a swarm that didn't immediately begin making wax, but I've never put empty drawn comb in with a swarm until this year. 

Is that the problem? 

The Ritecell that I put in the box is 2 years old. It's been stored in my garage but it's lost that beeswax smell. I put extra wax on 10 frames of it tonight and will swap them out tomorrow just in case that's it.


----------



## JanO (Dec 3, 2013)

It's only been a couple days. I'd leave them alone for a week or so then check on them again. Since they have drawn comb to work with first, maybe they just don't see the need to build yet. I never check my swarms until they've had at least a week to get settled in, and I usually give them empty comb to start with, so don't think that's the problem. Sometimes they build like crazy, sometimes they don't.


----------



## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

This is the first one that I've caught that has not started immediately, but there are many folks on here who catch more swarms in one year than I have all total. I caught another swarm yesterday, the one I vacuumed out of the soffit of a house, that had started putting wax "above" them and they had only been in the soffit for about 2 hours when I got there. I could hardly believe there were white spots of wax in there with them, but there was.


----------



## mgstei1 (Jan 11, 2014)

Feed em some 1:1 as much as they will take for about a week or two.


----------



## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

In your location at this time of year, I would alternate frames of undrawn foundation with frames of drawn foundation. Drawn comb is good, but I would use foundationless instead of undrawn foundation in what will become the brood chamber. But that's just me.


----------



## Bkwoodsbees (Feb 8, 2014)

My 2 swarms that I caught didn't start drawing for 3 days. I feed them a quart of 1:1 every week. They are really going now.


----------



## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Swarms leave the parent hive pre-loaded with honey so that they can draw wax wherever it is they end up at. I always hived swarms on foundation only, and they started drawing wax right away, as they had planned on. When hiving them with drawn comb, they will fill the comb then refuse to draw wax as quickly, as they got lazy and don't have the ambition any more. This is most of your problem, hiving on drawn comb.

The other factor with your problem is that your plastic foundation has lost its wax. Re-waxing it will help greatly.

Another factor that needs to be considered is the flow strength, or lack of, at the moment in your area. A syrup feeder may be warranted.


----------



## Mr.Beeman (May 19, 2012)

Ever since I had drawn comb I have used it to hive swarms on. The reason they aren't drawing their own is that they are busy cleaning/filling the drawn you gave them. Three deep drawn comb frames is a lot to clean in just two days! A few more days and they will start drawing their own. I hope you pulled of that wonkey comb.
Like Ray said, flow plays a big part with the drawing process but you said they filled the two drawn deeps in two days. Flow is not the issue. lol 
Bee swarms don't need to a place that smells like beeswax to draw comb. Most swarms move into cavities that never had bees before. Most often the cavities (walls, other trees, etc.) smell like wood.


----------



## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

RayMarler said:


> Swarms leave the parent hive pre-loaded with honey so that they can draw wax wherever it is they end up at.


I've read that quite a bit and I wondered if giving them the drawn comb gave them a place to "offload" the honey that they consumed before swarming and kept them from going into wax making mode.

Flow is moderate to heavy and steady. It's about to bust wide open. My production hives are all drawing at least some white wax. Some more than others. Bees are bringing in copious amounts of pollen and nectar.

Thanks for all the replies and Riverderwent, I think I will put some foundationless frames in with them too. I don't need any drone comb as I have quite a bit scattered in my other hives but I figure since they'll be in expansion mode and won't make drone comb.

I lost quite a bit of brood comb to wax moths last fall and I desperately need more brood comb. I will probably just keep handing them deep frames as long as they will draw it. When our flow stops in June I will begin feeding to keep comb drawing going.

Oh and to Mr Beeman, yes I pulled the wonky comb off. I don't let that mess stay in a hive. One bad comb just makes more bad combs. Also my bees are heavy propolis producers and somehow they push my frames apart by poking propolis on the sides of the end bars on the frames. I use to think that I might be forgetting to push them tightly together but for the past 2 years every time I check a hive I scrape the propolis off the end bars and use my hive tool to pry the frames as tight together as they will go. I decided last weekend that I am going to make wedges to put in each box to keep the frames from spreading apart. I know that may sound crazy but that's all I can come up with.


----------



## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

Mr.Beeman said:


> Like Ray said, flow plays a big part with the drawing process but you said they filled the two drawn deeps in two days. Flow is not the issue.


I may have said 2 deeps above, I didn't go back and look, but it's 2 drawn deep frames, not 2 whole deeps.  If I ever catch a swarm that can fill 2 drawn deeps in 2 days, I'm gonna pinch all my queens and immediately start grafting from the swarm queen. LOL


----------



## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

bradbee - what did you do with the as you say wonky comb wax? Best to smash it into little balls and drop into the bottom of the hive as the bees will chew/recycle the wax. Just saying


----------



## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

I flipped it off into the hive bottom. I don't go to the trouble of smashing it, I just rake it off with my hive tool and let it fall. I do pretty much all comb that I remove that way whether it's from the tops of the top bars or wherever, I just slice it off with the hive tool and let it stay in the hive. I figure they'll chew it up and use it somewhere else.

I put 4 frames in the hive today that I recoated with wax last night. They had started drawing a little correct comb in a couple of spots on one frame, but both frames had 2 portions of "wonky" comb on them again. They had even drawn some wonky comb on the face of a fully drawn comb that I put in there. It's amazing how much a frame can change overnight. One of the frames that was full of nectar yesterday, had a large area in the middle of it where the nectar had been removed and it now had eggs in the open area. What little comb this swarm is drawing is light brown. 

I also decided to put rewaxed frames in with the swarm that I vacuumed out Wednesday. They were pulling comb on 3 frames. Same Ritecell foundation that's in the other hive, but they're pulling nice white wax comb right where it should be. I saw the queen in this hive too but I could see no eggs. She looks to be a mated queen.


----------



## Brad Bee (Apr 15, 2013)

It took them a few days to start making white wax but they are now drawing comb like old pros. Re-waxing the Ritecell fixed the wonky comb problems too.


----------

