Ted,
I have my best results by feeding sugar syrup to the hives that I want to
pull comb.  I usually do this in July when the flow is really low.  By
feeding syrup, I get drawn comb and keep the bee count up in the hives.  I
want to keep the bee count up for the cotton and alfalfa in august/
september/october.  I remove all supers from the colonies and just place one
super of undrawn comb.  Each hive will pull most of a super in a month on
sugar syrup.
 
If I get sugar-honey in the super, I can either extract for feeding in late
winter or keep the comb in the super and place the super on in late fall for
winter food.  If I use the sugar-honey for winter feed, I have to be careful
that the queen doesn't lay eggs in the super in the early spring before I
can work the hives.
 
Any other comments from the list?
 
Richard Barnes
SW Oklahoma, USA
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At 12:13 PM 6/12/97 -0400, you wrote:
>This year I bought the makings for several new supers, built them over the
>winter and had them ready for the flow.  I first used all of my fully drawn
>supers on my hives to get as much honey as possible.  Since they are now
>fully capped now I am putting on my new supers.  I'm a little disappointed
>because my bees aren't taking to them with reckless abandon.  They really
>aren't doing much to draw them out at all.
 
>It's turning out to be a good year for honey here.  I hope everyone else is
>seeing a good flow.
>
>Ted Wout
>Red Oak, TX (just south of Dallas)
>
>