On Saturday 02 October 2004 01:47 pm, Ian wrote:
> >I have a couple of hives that have chewed cell
> >walls down to the foundation in areas as large as a hand-span in several
> >combs where the surroundings are packed with brood.
> >Can anything be done to get the bees to rebuild the
> >cells?
>
> I see that once and a while in my hives, rotating the comb in the brood box
> seem to salve the problem for me.  Perhaps the culprit is bee space between
> the frames?

If the bees appear to be spontaneously chewing down the walls then its
unlikely its a bees space issue...of course it could be. The comb could have
sagged one way or another. Colonies that have been infected by wax moth once
found will chew the comb right down to and cut holes through the foundation
to get rid of the wax moth. I don't treat my hives and let them deal with
things on their own, and I have seen all of my hives get infiltrated by wax
moth and I have seen them all deal with the problem successfully within 2-3
days of the bees recognizing there is a problem.

I have had one exception where a new swarm had quickly gotten infested with
wax moth, the cluster was too weak and new to deal with it, they hadn't had
time to cap any brood yet, and they absconded when they couldn't get ahead of
the wax moth. Too bad because the comb was absolutely beautiful. Tiny tiny
and perfectly patterned. 4.6mm comb was the average in the core. 4.9 being
the largest. Amazing.

--
Scot Mc Pherson
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