After repeated use, old brood combs become very dark—nearly black. The inside diameter of each cell also becomes smaller because the cocoons of each succeeding generation are glued to the cell walls. Even though the cells are polished by nurse bees before new eggs are laid, some of this cocoon material remains.
Pesticides and disease organisms can reside in both the wax cells and the cocoon layers. The darker the cells get, the higher the probability of contamination. For this reason, it is recommended that very dark combs be cut away and discarded. This was not always the case. In the past beekeepers could keep combs in use ten or twelve years and it was a point of pride to do so. However, with the universal use of pesticides and the ever-widening array of honey bee diseases, that philosophy has changed.
One of the easiest ways to rotate old comb out of your supply is to decide on an annual schedule of replacement. For example, if you replace the worst 20% of your combs every year, you will rotate your entire stock once every five years. Some beekeepers prefer to replace 25% every year for a four-year rotation.
If I’m doing a hive inspection and notice a particularly bad comb, I mark the top bar with a felt-tip pen so I can find it again later. Then, before spring build-up when both stores and brood nests are small, I go through the hives and pull out the 20% I’m going to discard. Since the brood nests are small, it is easy to equalize the boxes so that each box has eight frames remaining.
The empty slots can be replaced in several different ways. You can use new frames or you can cut out the old comb and reuse the frames if they are not too bad. You can use foundation—or not—just as you normally do. I prefer to have all new frames made in advance and then just drop one in wherever I pull an old one out.
The system is not perfect. You will always find a hive where all the brood for the entire colony is on the one worst comb. Don’t worry about it—just leave that one there and remove the worst frames that don’t contain any brood. Even with those few exceptions, you will still be providing a healthier environment for your baby bees.
Rusty
The queen must be surrounded by fully employed hard working fulfilled bees in a calm industrious stress-free balanced environment.
Provide options for the queen to lay worker and drone brood as she may require.
Insert new frames and a harmony frame – 2 weekly interventions.
Remember to keep the queen’s quarters clean at all times.
A new honey flow can recommence at short notice.
Two weekly interventions ensures the brood box is always ready to go into fast track mode.
Rotate most of (but not all) sealed and unsealed worker brood from the brood box up into the exact same position in the super above the queen excluder. As the larvae mature and hatch the cells are filled with honey.
Rotate most (but not all) sealed honey frames away for extraction.
Rotate uncapped/capped honey frames from the brood box up into a honey super.
Result happy bees, no swarming, just as Langstroth devised 158 years ago.
Rotate dark used frames up and out of the brood box into a honey super to be filled with honey.
Rotate dark extracted frames to the shed for cut out and foundation replacement.
Rotation is a continual ongoing process.
That is certainly a different take on it. What is a harmony frame?
Just as Langstroth said on page 15 of The Hive and the Honey Bee, the bees do not swarm in a movable comb hive. The rotation of frames every two weeks as previously emailed: it is here during the peak honey producing spring and summer periods that correct regular predictable rotations allows a tangible connection between beekeepers and the bees and bees work as fulfilled balanced creatures. Collecting pollen, nectar, water, propolis and working to air condition the hive is only part of the work cycle. They have to continually build comb as and when required. On my hives that is most of the year.
A Randy Oliver-type drone frame placed into position two in the brood box and then shifted to position one after the frame has been drawn will then be rotated to the top honey super and away for extraction. Cleaned up and again rotated down into the brood box position two for drones once again continues the harmony process of rotation. In the 21st Century when I hear modern beekeepers telling me their bees are swarming, well I say to them “Bah Humbug!” That is bee losing not bee keeping.
Marley
[...] we ought to replace our frames every five years (i.e. replace two frames/20% per box each year). Rusty @ HoneybeeSuite.com suggests this method too (though, if I read you right, Rusty, your personal method is a bit [...]
I would like to read more on this topic. Marley’s statement seems sound to me:
“The queen must be surrounded by fully employed hard working fulfilled bees in a calm industrious stress-free balanced environment.”
And it seems that I need to read Langstroth.
Your response to Marley seemed a bit dismissive. I am sure this is one of those things beekeepers have different ideas about, but sometimes many hundreds of my bees hang out on the front porch and I wonder if I am keeping them busy enough. I have only 10 deep frames and 10 more medium frames in a super. I cannot rotate frames between boxes. I am wondering if I need different equipment. Or do I just need to buy some more deep and medium frames and swap them in when “appropriate”? I do not think I have enough information yet to judge.
Sorry if I sounded dismissive. I truly don’t know what he means by “harmony frame” and I was hoping for a clarification so I could comment.
That said, two other things run counter to my beekeeping philosophy. First, I believe in as little beekeeper interference as possible. The bees know what is best for them so, for the most part, I like them to run their own household. Marley’s way seems overly intrusive in my personal opinion.
Secondly, I believe happy, healthy bees want to swarm. That is nature’s way of reproducing the hive. Bees should want to swarm, they need to swarm, it is the biological imperative. Sort of like sex. I believe that colonies that are not inclined to swarm are not healthy or are under some kind of stress (like too much beekeeper interference?)
When I see raucous, ambitious, lively hives, chomping at the bit to swarm, I believe the beekeeper is doing a good–no, a great job. Beekeepers need to do what is good for the bees, not what is convenient for the beekeeper.
And, Paul, you are right: keep reading. There is so much information out there. One thing you will find is that bees spend a lot of their time sleeping (or resting). Sometimes they don’t want something else to do, sometimes they just want a catnap.
Thank you, Rusty. You make complete sense that bees should want to swarm. This idea is somehow calming to me. My focus can be more on assisting the bees and less on controlling them, which I can only partially do anyway.
The concept of bees resting is new to me. I had observed up till now that the hive was always busy. Perhaps not all the bees are always needed to be busy. Hm. I wish I knew more.
I will, of course, continue to read. Bee reading is nearly as enjoyable was bee watching and tends to increase the effectiveness of the observation.
Paul,
If you don’t mind, these are my personal recommendations for you based on your comments & questions:
The Buzz about Bees by Jurgen Tautz. I know it sounds like a kids’ book, but it’s not. The sub-title is “Biology of a Superorganism.” It’s about how all the bees in the hive act as one organism, always for the good of the hive, not for the good of the individual. It tells a lot about how the bees communicate with each other, and about their sight, navigation, etc. Just the pictures are worth the price of the book.
Honeybee Democracy by Thomas Seeley is about swarming. It tells about all the group decisions regarding when to swarm and where to live. All you ever wanted to know about swarming and then a whole lot more. This is not an easy read, but if you carefully follow the graphs and diagrams, you can pick up a wealth of information and insight.
Thanks, Rusty.
I was disappointed by the selection of beekeeping books at Barnes and Noble when I went to look for these. My local B&N had zero beekeeping books. Zero. I told them they would have more soon. I predict an increase in demand.
Then, I lost my paper list and I’ve been scouring this blog site for the above comment. I read a bunch of interesting stuff I was not looking for, but eventually I found my way back here. Now I have the list again and am leaving Father’s Day hints for my wife with good solid Amazon.com links.
My wish list now includes:
The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a Superorganism – Jürgen Tautz
Honeybee Democracy – Thomas D. Seeley
Beeing: Life, Motherhood, and 180,000 Honey Bees – Rosanne Daryl Thomas
The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men – William Longgood
Langstroth’s Hive and the Honey-Bee: The Classic Beekeeper’s Manual – L. L. Langstroth
I’m almost jealous: you still have those great books in front of you! I have been intending to add more to the “Bookshelf” section, but I have a hard time getting around to it. I probably have twenty-some to add. But you have a great selection on your list. I buy them all through Amazon. Brick and mortar bookstores are sadly lacking in books. Odd, that.
Temple Grandin (the cow whisperer) suggests, “ . . . all animals and people have the same core emotion systems in the brain. Everyone who is responsible for animals needs a set of simple reliable guidelines for creating good mental welfare. Don’t stimulate rage, fear and panic; do satisfy the play and seeking aspects of behaviour”.
LANGSTROTH says in ‘The Hive and the Honey bee’:
“ . . . I could dispense entirely with natural swarming, and yet multiply colonies with greater rapidity and certainty. All feeble colonies could be strengthened, and those which had lost their queen furnished with the means of obtaining another. If I suspected anything was wrong with a hive, I could quickly ascertain its true condition and apply the proper remedy . . .”
Every two weeks get close to the queen bee in your life. The workers only live for 45 days. The queen bee is a reflection of the energy and temperament of the hive provided her beekeeper has communicated every two weeks. Regularity, repetition, rotation, cleanliness. Young bees MUST work. Older bees LOVE to work. Have the brood box in a state of readiness with fresh frames and a drone harmony frame, rotate the sealed and unsealed worker brood to the exact same position above the queen excluder.
My bees do not swarm. My queens work WITH me. They always have plenty of OPTIONS in their brood box.
Your beekeeping experience just went up several notches. Get with the program guys!
I keep bees in Western Australia where we deliver the world’s finest honey to our friends and family. Ha!
Hello again. This year has been a difficult year with huge numbers of bee hives swarming all through the springtime (Sept Oct Nov in the southern hemisphere.)
Got to view some bad tempered queen bees doing their thing and after a few adjustments to their brood frames as per the Harmony Frame Rotation method and a couple of extracted sticky frames dipped in water, that queen was saying hello baby every 4 days and laying eggs right there in front of me and soon after she was transferred into a bigger brood box and going like the clappers and her bees so focused and the hive so evenly balanced why would anyone not want to try the HFRM and have nice bees . . . all the time.
Animal behaviour, that is an area of study also applies to bees. Once the queen bee gets with the program, recognizes the bee keeper as positive calm dominant energy, she goes to work. In a 10 fr hive recently the queen had laid eggs in 8 frames and the twice monthly intervention spotted this, moved the frames, made room for the queen to lay yet again and the flow of honey was as it should be. Very quickly that is within 2 hours the bees have re-organised, taken fresh instructions from the queen bee and are doing what they do best…work. I’d rather bee beekeeping than anything else when it is always so fulfilling for me and my queen bees. Gotta love them!