David Martin wrote:
 
>This establishes that the INTENT is for communication
>holes to be positioned at the BOTTOM of the frame.  That
>in itself, however, does not establish scientific validity.
>
>In my observation of deep brood chamber frames,
>whenever bees are given wire reinforced foundation, they
>draw the comb from top to bottom (as they do in nature),
>then chew away a space between the comb and the
>BOTTOM bar.
 
That's my experience too. When i have two brood boxes the bees
like to chew wax off from the frames at the bottom box. They also
remove wax at the end bars providing hiding places for swarm cells.
My frames are drawn out in supers, and only nice drawn frames are
going to the brood boxes. But the bees "modify" them after a season.
 
>I am not convinced the purpose of this
>space is for "communication" or travelling.  I will casually
>hypothesize it is an area reserved for building queen cups
>in anticipation of producing queen cells for possible future
>swarming.
 
Not sure about that. Bees prefer to have swarm cells above the
cluster or when superseeding in the centre. To my knowledge
they don't often make cells at the bottom.
 
>whenever I have used
>Duragilt in brood chamber deeps, the bees try
>(unsuccessfully) to enlarge the manufactured
>communication holes (at the bottom) by removing the wax
>around them, rendering that section of frame useless.
 
That's been annoying me for years, so much space that's not used
in the hive.
 
>(BTW, I have never observed bees chewing "communication
>holes" anywhere in honey supers, but then, I use the
>shallow size there, so the comparison may not be valid.)
 
I have not seen a difference between shallows and deeps in
the supers. The bees close the communication hole in the
deeps when I use them for supers. (when I use Duragilt)
 
>It would be good to hear from Dadant about this.  Surely
>this has been discussed in ABJ of the past.  What about it,
>"scientists", and, especially, "ordinary" beekeepers out there?  :>}
 
Yes, anyone else out there that's got some answers?
 
regards
 
P-O Gustafsson
Sweden
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