Hi Randy

> Dave, the trap frames that I use have no foundation, and close to 99 out of
> a hundred are drawn out in early spring as solid drone comb.

I am not concerned about the drawing of empty frames or trap frames 
which are easily demonstrated to contain whole sheets of drone cells, 
what I am saying that under circumstances where one is not introducing 
such frames or spaces, the bees will never build more than large palm 
sized patches of drone cells.

> This is a great image, but not what I see in my colonies.  When I reinsert
> the empty drone trap frame after cutting out the drone comb, the bees build
> fresh drone comb immediately, and by two days later there is already a palm
> to hand-sized patch of comb with eggs.

It is possible for a Langstroth frame to be built out in about one hour 
from a pencil thickness bead of wax, (an experiment that was reported on 
BEE-L some years ago) the maximum work rate of bees is phenomenal, yet 
hardly ever witnessed or indeed achieved.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://melliferabees.net Email: [log in to unmask]
Short FallBack M/c, Build 7.21/2.01
Son of ORAC M/c, Build 5.o1/2.o1

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