Hi all
The following lecture/talk was just given by me at the
105th anniv convention of the Alabama State Beekeepers on
21 Sep 02. I am posting it here for much discussion and
comment, as it relates highly to beekeeper induced stress
within beehives and other problems.
"Housel Positioning"
How I View It's Importance to Beekeeping
Just a few weeks before this meeting, in discussion with
Michael Housel, of Orlando, Florida, I received
information concerning proper positioning of wild feral
combs built by honeybees he had been monitoring and
observing in his local area hanging on limbs of trees.
Intrigued by, and recognizing the value of the information
concerning the positioning of the wild feral combs, my
husband and I immediately started incorporating the
information into our field management program, by
resequencing close to 35,000 frames in our colonies, to
match their positioning.
So just what is this proper positioning of feral combs
Michael Housel told me about?
It concerns understanding the “Y” formation of the pyramids
formed at the base of the wild combs, and in manufactured
beeswax foundation at the base of the cell imprints, that
beekeepers place into their colonies, to help domesticated
honeybees replicate wild feral combs.
Foundation used by beekeepers is basic to field managment.
It is used to stimulate domesticated honey bees to build
both brood and honey combs, using beeswax secreted from
glands on the workerbee’s body.It was originally copied
from wild combs in the 1800s.
The “Y” formation has been there since the beginning in the
making of beeswax foundations. It’s in understanding it,
and it’s proper positioning and placement that Michael
Housel has recognized, and we just resequenced our colonies
to duplicate, that I hope others here today listening and
learning about it, will want to duplicate also, in their
own beekeeping operations.
If you copy something exactly to use, which is the purpose
of our foundations, and then you don’t use it as originally
designed and placed by the bees themselves, how can
beekeepers blame bees for building and doing things wrong
within a beehive? For then in actually, it’s man’s improper
alignments and positioning of manufactured foundations,
contrary to original natural design, that could then be
causing much of todays bee’s internal problems relative to
working and drawing combs.
How can scientists do research even, with improper
positioning of foundations, not relative to actual
positions in the wild? Is science, science, if based upon
an artificial world of enlargeness, and improperly
positioned combs at the same time, that matches nothing in
a real world? How do you know if the research you are doing
is good or bad for what it is supposed to relate to, if the
combs in the domesticated colonies being reviewed do not
match the positioning of wild combs?
The “Y” formation
A “Y” is formed where lozenge-shaped rhombic plates come
together to form a Y impresson at the bottoms of cells on
beeswax foundation. The formation of the “Y” is also seen
in wild combs at their cell bases.
There is a right and left side to each foundation and comb
when viewed, whether in a man-made colony, or hanging down
from a limb.
The right and left sides for facing foundation and drawn
combs in a beekeepers hive are determined by the top or
bottom positioning of the “Y” formation.
This changes by either being right or left of an imaginary
center line in domesticated hives. In the wild there is one
special center comb hanging down from a limb. In our
man-made hives which we call colonies this does not occur,
and so an imaginary line must be drawn and used, for
positioning right or left of center, and up or down, of the
“Y” formation.
Beekeepers can easily turn a wild comb and see this.
Likewise beekeepers can turn a man-made frame or piece of
foundation and see this formation also.
When wild combs are cut down, should not they be positioned
in alignment like those obtained from the wild colony, to
aid the now domesticated bees placed into a man-made hive,
to continue to grow and properly expand?
If you have not seen or noticed this before, take a sheet
of foundation and put it in front of you on a flat spot to
look at.
Then with the rectangle sheet of foundation with long-ways
on top and bottom, and short ways on sides, carefully look
at it.
There are two ways to rotate a sheet or comb (in frame)
when looking at it to observe the “Y” formed at the bottom
of the cells.
Most beekeepers are taught early on to carefully rotate a
sheet or frame with bees, from top to bottom (vertically up
and down), with a twist of the fingers and wrist, so as to
disturb the bees on the comb as little as possible, to
observe the broodnest for conditions relative to disease,
mites, egg laying, and larva size, applicable for grafting.
When beekeepers rotate a frame this way, no change to the
eye takes place, though you rotate to see both inside the
top and bottom of the cells. Beekeepers are taught this
motion to observe bees for various fouls, and mite feca for
evidence of varroa present.
Next, with the sheet of foundation in front of you, turn
the sheet NOT VERTICALLY, BUT INSTEAD FROM LEFT TO RIGHT
HORIZONTALLY!
Now, when you look at the cell bottoms with the “Y”
formation it should change from top to bottom, every time
you turn the sheet over.
Explaining “Housel Positioning”
In the wild, there is one center frame that is first drawn
when honey bees swarm onto a limb. In spring or following
normal swarming the first comb built is worker (exception
being more towards fall, following the summer solstice and
longest day, when bees swarming can sometimes want to build
drone/honey comb first to obtain stores for winter and then
once a certain amount is drawn and realized, they then
start workercombs). Now this comb is built with the “Y”
inverted and unside down on both sides of the comb. So I
now type “^I^” to show the inverted “Y” on both sides of
the comb. There is only one of these combs made.
For hives that normally swarm, wanting worker larva for
continuation of species, bees need optium cells for
workerbrood immediately, especially in areas of short
flows. Hence, this specially drawn first comb.
This starts the wildnest with a center comb expressly
designed for maximum production of worker bees, that are
needed immediately for continued rearing of new brood and
collection of stores, as the field force dies off.
Each comb then, on each side of the center comb follows
position, for continued maximum rearing of brood, and then
collection of stores of pollen and honey, as comb building
progresses and expands the nest.
From here, the “Y” formation stays inverted first, facing
center with the “^” down. This continues formation of a
slanting ledge the larva rest on, allowing for maximum
field bees to be used for gathering stores of nectar needed
for comb production, with lesser numbers of nurse bees
required. I now type “^” to show the inverted “Y” for side
facing center comb (or center of imaginary line in center
of man-made colony) with slanted ledge.
On the other side of the comb the “Y” formation faces up,
and helps to form a slanted roof, to help once the bees
manage to build enough comb, to protect larva and stores
gathered from sun, rain, etc. I now type “Y” to show the
“Y” right side up with roof, for side facing away from the
center comb.
What beekeepers end up with then, is all foundation or
combs in colony with the “^” down formation facing towards
center, and all foundation or combs in colony with “Y” up
formation, facing towards the sides of the boxes/supers,
away from an imaginary center line. I now type ^IY to show
this.
Now, the combs in the center on frames are the smallest and
are worker cells, and only at the periphery of the worker
cell broodnest change into drone cells.
This can be done two ways.
On either side of a good drawn workercomb you can have
periphery drone cells, including the bottoms.
Once an average of four or so worker combs are drawn on
each side of the center worker comb, beekeepers will find
the next combs built a combination of drone/honey combs. So
what you are looking at in broodboxes/supers then is:
YI^,YI^,YI^,YI^,YI^,^IY,^IY,^IY,^IY,^IY
What you are looking at in wild combs hanging is:
YI^,YI^,YI^,YI^,^I^,^IY,^IY,^IY,^IY
This transition to larger starts slow but gets more
pronounced the closer to the outside of the broodnest you
go across the first workercell combs built from the center
main comb or imaginary line.
On good flows, beyond this, especially in wild colonies,
you can get combs drawn with cells even bigger then drone
cells, but rarely seen except in exceptional years.
Now, the placement of these bigger combs/dronecombs on the
outside periphery, is to protect the worker combs from
damage. Animals attacking a feral hanging nest will pull
off the outside larger combs for food and many timnes go on
after eating their fill. Wind if strong, along with rain
will knock or blow/rip down these outside combs. They are
weaker combs with less wax cell walls, and thus more easily
tear loose. But, they serve to protect the inside combs, by
their side alignment and positioning, from both the
elements and animals. This then leaves the smaller worker
combs safe, which can and often do, contain honey besides
pollen, as the active year progresses and brooding cuts
back, and are the strongest combs with macimum wax for
strength.
The positioning of the combs in man’s domestic hives should
follow the above for drone/honey cell positioning relative
to worker/pollen/honey cell positioning.
All good drawn-out worker combs should be placed to center,
then frames/combs with peripherys of drone cells (not more
then 10% kept), then lastly badly drawn-out transition
combs. This way, beekeepers end up with 4 good worker combs
in the center of broodboxes, and the three on each side for
combinations of combs containing worker/drone,
pollen/honey storage, and only the immediate outside frame
position, for absolute hodge-pogded transition cull comb,
until the beekeeper can work it up and out during routine
field work, for taking back to the honeyhouse for
extracting and recycling by melting down.
Importance of "Housel Positioning to Field Beekeeping
Management
As I said earlier, intrigued by, and recognizing the value
of the “Housel Positioning” relative to wild feral combs,
we have resequenced close to 35,000 frames in our colonies
and will do more as we continue to work our bees. By
resequencing our combs to match wild comb positioning,
final internal colony problems relative to our honeybees
drawing-out of foundation and how the bees work the combs,
appear to be lessening or stopping altogether. Much stress
seems to have been eliminated.
My husband and I manage our hives using 4.9mm small cell
beeswax foundation, with unlimited broodnest management of
2-3 deep boxes, with 1-2 deep supers for honey production,
with an overall average colony size of 4-5 deeps. We see no
problems in using 4.9mm foundation in conjunction with
“Housel Positioning”, as all this does, is copy wild
naturally small honeybee comb positioning found hanging
from a limb on a tree. This way, we end up with a field
management program that is biologically harmonious to wild
honeybees, in both comb size and positioning, but under
man’s control for production.
At the same time, by not having to use various treatments
of chemicals, drugs, essential oils, FGMO and acids for
parasitic mite control, accompanying secondary diseases and
miscellaneous bee pests, we also gain clean products of the
hive to sell, and bees harmonious with Nature again that
live.
Final internal colony problems lessening or stopped by
proper “Housel Positioning” following resequencing of combs
have been:
1. Queens not laying in inserted drawn combs placed into
the broodnest. Many times beekeepers, as a part of field
management throughout the active beekeeping year, insert
drawn combs into the broodnest for their queens to lay in,
as a means of producing more honeybees for production of
products they sell.
These combs can be dry combs or extracted wet combs. But on
subsequent hive checks, that can be days and even weeks
later, the beekeeper comes back to find the comb not used,
but the combs on either side being utilized and layed in.
Loss to buildup of workerbees, necessary for production,
is then the loss of brood that could have been generated,
for each 21 day brood cycle of workerbees, not layed by the
queen.
2. Excessively bulged/drawn-out honey combs with the next
frame either burred or hardly drawn. It is not uncommon for
beekeepers to find bulged/drawn-out honey combs with newly
drawn-out comb 2-3 inches thick in supers with new
foundations, while the adjoining new frame of foundation
next to it is hardly touched or is burred in pattern.
Transporting such honey combs home can be trying as bumps
are driven over, that cause the frames to knock and rub
together, causing the honey to run out the bottoms of
stacks of supers, before reaching the honeyhouse and
creating messes that then need to be cleaned up.
Through observation, we now know that the foundation/frame
positioning in the super was wrong, and that the frame that
was either burred or hardly touched, next to the bulged
overdrawn-out honeycomb, was backwards in position to other
combs in the honey super relative to positioning of wild
combs.
3. Bees refuse to move up into next higher box/super of
either drawn frames or new foundation. While this does not
happen too often on good honey flows, on average to poor
honey flows this can be a problem with bees showing
reluctance to expand up into the next higher box/super, to
either fill empty combs there, or draw-out foundation. This
found happening in a few hives can lessen workerbrood
raised and honey stores gathered. Once frames are
repositioned according to the way the “Y” formation is
facing, the bees move up and continue to expand and work.
4. Odd frames of foundation not drawn and/or bees
sidewinding. From time to time beekeepers place a new frame
of foundation into a broodbox or super of drawn combs only
to have their bees ignore it. Or they may have 2-3 frames
of either new foundation or drawn empty combs or
combination of these, the bees seem to ignore in a
broodbox/super. Through observation, we now know the “Y”
positioning of the new frame or frames was probably faced
wrong, causing the bees to go around the improper
sequencing and positioning relative to wild combs.
5. Burred foundation or overlayed foundation. From time to
time beekeepers find frames of new foundation that has been
overlayed with sections of either bigger or smaller combs
drawn out. We have seen bigger drone/honey combs overlayed
on frames positioned with the “Y” formation inserted
backwards. We have also seen worker/pollen combs overlayed
on frames positioned with the “Y” formation inserted
backwards. When looking at the overlayed comb,interesting
to note, is the fact that the bees in overlaying the
pattern, seem to be reworking the facing of the “Y”
formation.
Many places of overlay face the same way as the foundation
is placed, yet in other areas on the overlayed face, the
bees it seems, are actually trying to reverse it’s
positioning to that of the foundation which was improperly
positioned. Each burr overlayed formation tells it’s own
little story of the bees working it, trying to adapt the
“Y” formation. This leads to much transition comb if these
frames are allowed to be continued. Our combs are more
evenly smaller now, because our bees are more uniformly
maintainted and bred, so we mainly see our bees trying to
determine which way to face the “Y” formation now. Various
sizes of differing transitional burr combs are not so
prevalent with cells sizes strikingly different to the
eyes.
6. Transitional combs containing various cell sizes are
built. Similar to overlayed combs built upon new sheets of
foundation, beekeepers can find transitional combs being
built by honeybees containing numberous cell sizes. These
cells are normally built by colonies upon foundations with
“Y” formations positioned wrong and can range up to .2mm to
.3mm bigger on average.
7. Queens are suddenly raised at wrong times of the active
year causing swarming problems. Beekeepers in adding empty
drawn combs or freshly extracted wet combs into the
broodnest sometimes go back and find hives requeening at
odd times of the active year. Beekeepers can also add odd
frames of new foundation into the broodnest to be drawnout
and end up with a few queens being raised along with worker
larva. They can also have changed nothing from the previous
year in the broodnest, but all of a sudden requeening
starts even though they know the queen they have is young
and this should not be happening. This can be especially
frustrating when a honey flow is coming on or in progress,
or they actively follow breeding programs trying to requeen
their colonies yearly to avoid this. Why would colonies
want to requeen more then once throughout the active
beekeeping year?
From what we have seen in our colonies, it is a comb
positioning problem with the frames in backwards. With the
comb positioned backwards and thus out of alignment with
other combs in proper sequence, beekeepers can trigger
spontaneous requeening in colonies by failing to note which
way the “Y” formation is facing. Beekeepers must take note
and remember one way the formation of the “Y” faces is
inverted and down “^”, creating a ledge for larva to lay
upon that honeybees use for fast build-up following
swarming, etc.
On the other side of the comb and/or foundation, the “Y”
formation faces up and helps to form a slanted roof, to
protect larva and stores gathered from sun, rain, etc. But,
the slanted roof of the “Y” formation facing up has another
purpose in a colony! For it is only on the side where the
“Y” formation faces up, and helps to form this slanted
roof, that honeybees raise “queen cells” that face downward
for requeening.
Therefore, beekeepers not positioning foundation and drawn
combs properly can spontaneously trigger superceding, and
thus swarming in their colonies. With hives under stress
already from disease, pests (beetles), and predators
(mites), besides often on programs of various treatments
for same, improper positioning then takes less effort to
trigger problems, one of which can be spontaneous
requeening.
Whose fault is it then! The bees or the beekeepers, for not
following proper “Housel Positioning” for sequencing of
managed colony combs, relative to proper positioning of
wild combs?
One last note, in going back to colonies that were
resequenced with proper “Housel Positioning” of frames,
the disposition of the bees was noticed to be gentler then
before.
Sincerely,
Dee A. Lusby
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