From: randy oliver <[log in to unmask]>

>Can't imagine any beginning beekeeper who doesn't learn the
hard way about what happens when you leave a frame out, and the bees
build volunteer combs from the lid.

yes, but we are talking about good, straight comb built into frames that can be extracted.  worker comb as well.

what most seem to think (because most beekeepers use only full frames of worker foundation), is that bees will only draw drone comb.  they justify this by running an experiment whereby they put in an empty frame between 2 drawn combs.  the bees build a full frame of drone comb (those that do drone trapping do this on purpose).  they have been taught that drone comb is bad, so they take the frame out, and put in another empty frame...where they draw another frame of drone comb.  

if they instead, moved the drone comb off to the side where the bees can rear drones as they care to, and store honey in whatever is left over, they will eventually start drawing worker comb.

personally, i've never left a frame out by mistake, and never saw natural comb being drawn (both sides of the comb at once, and fully drawn as the cluster moves down) until ramona came back from gunther hauk's workshop.  we had only used plastic foundation before that (and wireless thin wax for cutcomb), and this year is the first time we've ever wired foundation.  but the vast majority of frames we have in our hives are foundationless.

as a side note, an old book that i never hear talked about, "advanced bee culture" by w.z. hutchinson and published by a.i. root in the early 1900's (there are a few editions) is the only book i've ever read that advocates the use of both foundation and foundationless for different reasons in different circumstances.  foundation can have eggs laid before the cells are deep enough for the bees to fill with honey, whereas foundationless is generally filled as it is built.  the former is better for expanding the broodnest, the latter for getting honey stored.

deknow

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