
In nature, the bees may hang a feral hive from a branch and build their comb out from there. When Michael Housel studied the feral comb, he found that the center of the cell has a “Y” in it. In natural comb on either side of the center the “Y” faces up toward the outside of the hive.
When foundation is in a frame, you can turn the frame from right to left and see the "y" facing up on one side and the "y" facing down on the other. Here's a link
to see the Y positions.


We'll see if the bees take to this more eagerly than they have with my previous random foundation placement

I have also followed the teaching of Dee Lusby and put my foundation in according to the Housel positioning. I found that my bees didn't follow that pattern and preferred to build on one side of my hive that is next to my house. I believe the white siding makes that side of the hive warmer.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever Figure out if this worked or not?
ReplyDeleteI continue to use it - whether the bees are happier or not, I don't know. They do tend to build comb well, but whether it's Housel positioning or just a good nectar flow, I'm not sure. It helps to have a system for putting frames into the hives, so seven years later I still do it when I put drawn frames into a hive.
ReplyDelete