Starter Strips

The Hives

Top bar hives, where the bees were actively drawing out small cell sized comb in the broodnest core, were selected. Starter strips, in the test hives, were comprised of unembossed beeswax starter strips. They were fastened with molten beeswax into a saw kerf in the top bar.

Bees started comb from the bottom edge of the unembossed starter strips. After sufficient comb was drawn for rearing brood, the bees returned and worked upward filling the space between the comb and the top bar. Some very irregular comb was drawn out there.

Even a narrow unembossed starter strip initially interferes with comb construction. Natural comb drawn on a top bar with a beeswax filled kerf without the starter strip is much more regular. I've measured the initial cell size, on top bars without the starter strips, and found the following:

• Guess what? With a few exceptions, they all start out at just about the same size! It didn't matter whether the comb was broodnest or storage comb. And within a row or two, the bees would quickly expand or contract the cell size to accomodate their comb building needs.
• For my top bar hive, these cell sizes ranged from 5.0mm to 5.67mm. The vast majority of measurements were in 5.63 to 5.67mm range. The average was 5.64mm.
• I did the same thing with the small cell Lusbee comb shots from Barry's top bar hive. And I observed the same construction pattern. These cell sizes ranged from 4.6mm to 5.83mm. The vast majority of measurements were in the 5.3 to 5.5mm range. The average was 5.44mm.

This is natural broodnest comb when the bees draw it their way. Notice the unembossed
beeswax starter strip to the right. And the irregular comb on the starter strip.

The Test

For this test, I cut beeswax based small cell foundation into strips four cells wide. These strips were fastened to top bars by setting the strips in a saw kerf and filling the kerf with molten beeswax. A test frame was inserted into the center of the broodness with comb, like that shown above, on each side.

Here's a frame that's typical of the results:

Notice the small cell foundation starter strip on the right.

It's certainly not what the bees want and sure messes up what they would naturally do. Look at the seven, five, four sided and odd shaped transition cells the bees built attempting to get the comb on the right track.

To fit the broodnest structure, the left side of the comb should match the left side on the upper photo. The bees did a better job with the right side where drone comb would match the broodnest structure. But they never did get it corrected on the left side.

Unlike the unembossed starter strips the bees started construction comb on the top bar rather than the bottom of the starter strip. But they didn't use the smaller cell size embossed on the foundation as a pattern. They reworked it to a natural size seen when comb is drawn without using a starter strip.

While the bees refused to use the small cell starter strip as a pattern, they continued to drawn out natural comb with it's small cell size core on either side of this test.

Conclusion

When it comes to comb building, I've found that bees do best when we do the least. We simply don't understand enough about the basic, let alone the relationships, to help the bees rather than hinder them.