Kathy,
Yes, I got your VERY NICE and explanatory letter; and THANKS!

It s CONSTANT concern to me that people condemn the Imirie Shim saying that
bees build burr comb on top of the frames in the 3/4" hollow space of the
shim.
OF COURSE THE BEES WILL DO THAT, if there is not ENOUGH drawn comb super space
available!  Gosh, the bees are trying hard to tell the beekeeper that they
need MORE
super space to deposit their nectar, or they might swarm!

If my bees normally average 3 full supers of honey during our April and May
nectar
flow, I always install 5 supers of drawn comb (NOT FOUNDATION) on April 15th.
Hence, the bees have lots of room to store all that THIN WATERY nectar (maybe
20
pounds/day) until they have time to evaporate the water and ripen it into
honey.
Hence, I rarely have a swarm during a nectar flow.

What I am saying is you should always have more supers of drawn comb (again,
NEVER foundation) on your hive than you anticipate being filled with honey.

My super configuration is: starting upward from the queen excluder (I strongly
believe in queen excluders, and the are NOT honey excluders as some people
say)
there are 2 supers of DRAWN COMB, 1st Imirie Shim, 2 more supers of DRAWN
COMB,
2nd Imirie Shim, the 5th super of DRAWN COMB, and topped with a Goble style
inner cover which provides another UPPER ENTRANCE.

By the way, DRAWN COMB is every beekeeper's MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION and one
should never allow it to be destroyed by wax moths

Hence during a nectar flow, the congestion in the brood chamber is greatly
reduced
because the forager bees are using the 3 entrances into the supers (2
entrances in the 2 Imirie Shims plus the entrance in the Goble Inner Cover).  The
standard bottom
board entrance is primarily being used by young bees taking orientation
flights and
the drones, of course.

As always, I hope I have helped.

George Imirie, Retired Scientist
Certified EAS Master Beekeeper

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