Elizabeth Vogt s bees built comb down from her inner cover in between her
frames of foundation.
Elizabeth, I am afraid that your beekeeper friends gave you advice that was
not the best.  In supers, it is best to have nine combs and some even
advocate eight.  This because it has been demonstrated that when the bees
build out the combs deeper, which they will do with fewer combs, the extra
honey that is stored significantly exceeds that which would be stored with
ten frames.  In other words, nine combs will hold more honey than ten, and
eight will hold even more!  In addition, when the combs are built out well
beyond the wooden frames, uncapping, for extraction, is much faster and
easier.
However, in a brood nest, which you are trying to have the bees construct,
ten frames should be used.  Under normal circumstances, the queen will not
lay in the two end frames and they will be kept more or less full of honey
and pollen.  That leaves eight frames for brood.  If you only have nine
frames in a brood nest, the queen still will not lay in the end frames, so
that leaves only seven frames for brood.  That is a reduction of 1/8th or
12.5% for brood!  Use ten frames in the brood nest.
Further, even in a super, you should not start the bees on nine frames of
foundation, or they will do just what you experienced.  Instead, start them
on ten frames so there will not be any extra spacing.  The bees will start
drawing comb in the center frames and go outwards, leaving the end frames
until last.  When you have eight frames at least 50% drawn (some will be
100% drawn), remove both end frames.  Put one back, in the center, take the
center frame and put it on one end.  Re-space the nine frames, more or less
equally.  A finger works well for that.  Now the bees will continue to drawn
out the frames properly to fill the super.
Hope this helps.
Lloyd
[log in to unmask]
Owner, Ross Rounds  the finest in comb honey production.