> I tried a Ross Round super this year... the bees
> absolutely refused to have anything to do with it.  Even crowded down, with
> no other supers, they just would not work it.  I finally put a super of
> foundation above it, and the bees filled that one promptly.  Nothing I could
> find in the beelist archives shed much light on this problem.

My guess is that you tried to produce comb honey using a double brood chamber
hive.  It can be done, but only by experts who also have good luck and good
locations.

To make comb honey reliably, the brood chamber must be confined to ONE standard
box.

--- begin comments on comb production ---

I always insist on one brood chamber when people ask my advice.  An amazing
number insist on ignoring this most important single point, then ask "What
happened?" when things don't work out.

I know people are going to write saying that they have made comb with two, but
I'll say right now that they were lucky, not smart, and that they only produced
half of what they could have.

Lloyd suggested that comb honey is honey at its most natural.  I beg to differ.
Forcing bees to work in little plastic holes on manufactured foundation is about
as natural as producing veal, and like veal production, section comb honey
production requires specialized manipulations to overcome the bees natural
dislike of section boxes.  Once they accept them, they will work happily, but an
occasional hive will never accept them and a wise beekeeper simply gives in and
gives them back their normal supers. (This is quite rare, but real).

There are very simple foolproof methods of making comb such as starting with a
package or nuc in a single and just adding an RR super (without any excluder)
when the single is wall-to-wall, the weather is settled, a flow starts, and
supering time comes.  As each super is drawn, the wax making bees will be
displaced by honey and when they cover the tops of the frames completely, it is
time for another RR box. I've had ten+ RR supers on one hive doing it that way.
As the hive gets taller, it is a good idea to add new boxes of foundation on the
bottom of the stack near the heat of the brood.  Other methods are more
difficult and troublesome.

Any beginner can make RRs if he follows the above instructions well and has good
bees.  Many experienced beekeepers simply cannot because they find the
prescribed comb manipulations counter-intuitive and change one or two little
things in the recipe.

Something else to remember that is not obvious to most people is that bees may
not cap well until the end of the flow and the days start to get shorter, thus
it may be necessary to keep adding boxes, rather than simply removing comb as it
is made.  For that reason, I recommend three RR supers minimum per hive.  Some
will need one, some two, some five or more, but it averages to three in my
experience.  With three, you will be able to keep making comb all season.

---- end comb discussion ----

Otherwise, the only other explanation for your experience that I can think of is
that the super -- as you guessed -- had a bad history and possibly very stale
foundation.

allen
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