Bees Building Unwanted Comb Spaces

by Mark Wagner
(Tiffin Ohio)

My bees are filling in the space between my brood box and my first super. Every time I lift the top super to check on the hive I end up destroying all the comb and brood they have made.

Over the next two or three days they end up pulling all the dead or dying pupae out of the hive. My measurements are correct for the distant between hive bodies.

Help! I'm at a lost as what to do.

Hi Mark

I'm not totally clear what's happening here. If they're building comb between the brood box and the super I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with the construction.

Langstroth discovered the 'bee space', the space which bees keep to enable them to access all the areas of their hive. The hive space is usually taken to be 1/4" to 3/8"" (one quarter to three eighths of an inch). The construction of the Langstroth and other moveable-frame hives is based entirely on this principal.

The dimensions of the frames and boxes are such that there is gap between 1/4" and 3/8" between all adjacent surfaces.

I suggest you very carefully inspect the dimensions of your boxes again. If you're using boxes which are of the same type manufactured by the same company I' be surprised if you got this problem.

If the boxes are of different types or were homemade, you will probably find that the space between the frames in the super and the brood box is more than 3/8". Some, like the British National Hive, use a top bee space. If you mix 'top-space' equipment with 'bottom-space' equipment the spacing will be wrong.

You mentioned that the comb contained brood, if the errant comb was only 3/8" there wouldn't be any space more more than two cells.

Once you've checked the distance, and reduced it if necessary, you could put a queen excluder between the boxes to break up the gap. Before you do so, make sure the queen is down in the brood box.

Bees often build brace comb in places where the beekeeper doesn't want there to be comb. Sometimes they build it at right-angles to the foundation in frames which haven't yet been drawn out. Simply scrape off all the comb which is not where it should be and if the hive is constructed correctly I think you'll find the problem will be solved.

Let us know if this doesn't work for any reason.

The Bee Guy