At 10:04 AM 7/9/96 -0700, you wrote:
>Hi Everyone,
>
>I've got two questions for the list:
>
>First, does anyone have suggestions for enticing bees to draw out foundation
>into comb?  We're in the middle of a heavy blackberry flow here in Western
>Washington State, U.S.A., and my bees are bringing in a full and capped western
>super every 12 days when they are given comb.  I have nine colonies.
>
>Now I'm out of comb and have given them some boxes of foundation, which have
>been largely ignored.  Are there any tricks to making them draw it out, other
>than the "hurry up and wait" method I've used in previous years?  I would like
>to have more boxes of comb so I don't have to extract so frequently, and to
>increase production.
 
Place a frame or 2 of foundation in every super used during the flow.  They
will at lease start drawing it.  I have always found it difficult to draw
full boxes.
 
With 2 frames in a box (not side-be-side) you may find that other frames are
full and caped and the foundation is drawn somewhat and only a little honey
is stored.  Extract the box anyway and the next time around the new frames
will be treated as any other frame of drawn comb.
 
Good luck.
 
by the way - what is a 'Western super'?
 
Eric Abell
Gibbons, Alberta Canada
(403) 998 3143
[log in to unmask]