I have been trying to restock my supply of drawn comb.  I have always
had best results giving my bees foundation frames only, not a mixture
of drawn comb and foundation frames; it is this beekeepers preference
to give only foundation frames for the bees to draw.  To that end, I
have half boxes that hold 5 frames, which I put on top of 5-frame
nucs.  To over-explain, I have an established nuc in a 5-frame nucs
box, that I set up with 5-frames of drawn deep comb.  When the brood
emerges, and the queen has again fully laid the frames and the frames
are capped (by this time the nucs are booming), I will add the second
half box with 5 deep frames of foundation only.  So I have 5 frames of
foundation over 5 frames of drawn comb.  I feed 1:1 sugar syrup to
encourage the bees to draw the foundation and this strategy works well
for me.  When the top frames are drawn I will install the 5 over 5 nuc
into a single deep box, usually with the newly drawn frames centered
and sandwiched between the aged, fully drawn frames.  From left to
right the single deep will hold 3 frames of aged, fully drawn frames,
then 5 frames of newly drawn comb (which by this time contains capped
honey, capped pupae, larvae and eggs), followed by 2 frames of aged,
fully drawn frames.  When I transfer the 5 over 5 nuc into a single
deep box I give the new hive a second deep box which may consist of
either aged, fully drawn frames or 10 frames of foundation only (in
which case I will continue to feed to encourage the bees to draw the
foundation).

I transferred many 5-over-5 nucs into single deeps this morning.  For
the first time I can recall in my 35 years of beekeeping I looked into
the newly established single deep on the same day that I set it up.
To my astonishment I observed that the bees were showing an OBVIOUS
preference for the drawn frames of either end of the single deep box
and were decidedly forsaking the newly drawn frames in the center,
even though the newly drawn frames had brood of all stages (eggs,
larvae and capped pupae).  I have seen advised on BEE-L that bees do
not overwinter well on newly drawn comb, but this is the first time I
witnessed first hand that the bees were less fond of the newly drawn
frames than they were of the aged, fully drawn frames.  Now, as we are
all once in our careers newbies, so too are all frames at least once
in their use newly drawn.  I wonder how it is that the bees get over
the fact that they are on newly drawn comb?  Given a choice (and
admittedly, I have a limited sample size although I will continue this
experiment/exercise so that the sample size grows to a still
insignificant number) these bees demonstrated a preference for the
aged comb.  Is there anything a beekeeper might do to make the newly
drawn comb more attractive to the bees, or is time/use/age the only
course?

And please, keep responses focused on the new vs. aged aspect of this
observation.  I hope to stay focused on this aspect and not get
sidetracked on advice of mixing foundation with drawn or how one
beekeeper might do things differently than this beekeeper to get
foundation drawn.  I am intrigued by the preference for aged comb vs.
newly drawn comb and hope to hear responses to specifically address
what I observer this afternoon.

Aaron Morris - thinking the bees never cease to amaze me!

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm