Well first, good luck with the new hip!
(1) One trick is to give the bees no choice, and only give them a narrow space
to build in. For example you can move a follower board almost next to the last
comb, leaving a gap just one comb wide so they have to build there. However,
this assumes you have a straight comb to build against / start from, and
requires opening the hive frequently during periods of rapid comb building.
(2) Similarly on an established hive you can move already-straight combs apart
leaving a gap... again this requires some conveniently straight comb is there
already.
(3) People sometimes manually squish new comb to make it go straight. The idea
is that very new comb is very pliable and if you see it is veering off the bar,
you carefully cut it away from the next bar and bend it back to the original
one. I have to say that every time I have tried this, I have ended up with it
falling off the bar entirely.
(4) I get the impression, both from my own experience of flat / edged bars, and
from others' experiences, that clear comb guides work really well. I.e. a sharp
edge under the bars.
Paul
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Friday, 26 April 2019 12:43, Gilliane Sills <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I have a horizontal top bar hive which is badly cross-combed, with the
comb running along the hive, so that each comb crosses a number of top
bars. This has made it impossible to examine the bees without doing a
huge amount of damage, and I haven't wanted to do this. This colony
swarmed last weekend, and the swarm is now getting established in
another horizontal top bar hive. The top bars have a strip of wood
which I hope will encourage the bees to build along them, not across.
The bees are very active and are now, from today, bringing in quite
large quantities of pollen. When should I open the hive to see whether
they're building along the bars as I hope they are, and what should I do
if they're not, please? Things may be complicated by the fact that I go
into the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre on Monday for a replacement hip
operation!
Many thanks
Best wishes
Gilliane
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