I decided to pull this natural drone comb today because the frame doesn’t have any support wire, which would have made the comb a prime candidate for snapping off the frame someday.
2019 Postscript: I don’t put wire in my foundationless frames anymore. Wires might prevent the combs from flying to pieces in an extractor, but I don’t extract foundationless frames, so that’s not a problem. The bees usually do a good job of securing the comb to the frame on their own.
Take the frame that you pulled and melt the wire into it so you can salvage the the come on the frame. Put a small charge through a battery to generate some heat to melt the wire into the wax. Should work.
[This comment was copied from another post. – Phillip]
I’m tempted to keep it out just to have it around. The comb was built in less than a week (during a rainy week too). It shouldn’t take them long to rebuild it on another frame. It’s just so pretty to look at. I’ll test out the heated wire trick, though. If I can pull that off without blowing something up, I’ll do it.
So is that comb wax? Same stuff you see candles made off? When does honey production start?
That’s beeswax, the same stuff the candles are made from. The wax is melted down and stamped with a honey comb shape to make it look natural, I suppose. I’d prefer space ships.
The honey flows in Newfoundland happen around July and late August or early September. But don’t quote me on that. There should be two peaks in the honey production though. And by production I mean I steal the honey from the bees. I don’t produce anything.
Honey flow, by the way, is a beekeeping term that means everything is in bloom and conditions are as good as they’ll get for the bees to collect nectar and bring it home to make honey.