Encourage Lazy Bees to Draw Comb!!!!

[40 Acre Bees]

My honey supers have been on for at-least 3 weeks now and the bees are refusing to draw any comb.  It is wax coated shallow foundation and they really seem to have no interest.  They are using the top entrance and they have to travel right over it to get to the bottom deeps.  Is there a simple trick to encourage them to start drawing comb so we can have some honey this year.  All four hives seem to be ignoring it.  Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have.

[Mikey N.C.]

40, I've watched the last 2 yrs. if they are not in a hot flow. It's hard,  i have 4 supers they have not drawn yet.

[beeyhz]

Hello 40,  same thing, 2 weeks and absolutely nothing...lazy Nova Scotia bees.  Do you have a queen excluder on?  I do and was thinking of taking it off to get them started.

[40 Acre Bees]

No I have never used one, but I was also told never to use them when you are trying to get the bees to draw comb.

[CBT]

You drop to one honey super and spray a lite syrup and honey bee healthy type product on a frame or two.

[Perry]

40 Acre Bees is absolutely right, bees will not go through an excluder if all that's on the other side is foundation. Remove the excluder and let them get some comb drawn up there before putting it back on.
Bees will really only draw comb during a flow.

[Green bee]

You drop to one honey super and spray a lite syrup and honey bee healthy type product on a frame or two.

     Does this really work CBT ... I can assume you've tried this in the past. I think I'll give it a try myself.

[Lburou]

Bees won't draw foundation until they need space.  You can feed them, and if the stars are aligned, they will draw comb for you. 

[40 Acre Bees]

I was doing a little bit of Googling on Google and found a number of people that have good results by brushing extra wax onto the plastic foundation.  Has anyone ever tried this.  I have the wax, I have the time, but will it encourage them?  Thanks again for every ones input

[Perry]

I doubt that it would hurt, and all it would cost is a bit of time.

[40 Acre Bees]

Well I just re-waxed 40 frames of my waxed foundation and hopefully the bees will start drawing on that.  Didn't take a long time so it it works it will certainly be time well spent.  Also a good use for some old dark wax I had from my solar melter last year.

[Sour Kraut]

I've had terrible 'luck' ( a.k.a. problems ) getting them to draw on the wax-coated plastic ('Plasticell' is one name for it.) foundation, even in deeps, with a real heavy flow on......supers..forget it.

I've gone back to real wax foundation, vertically wired in supers.

I'm working on a plan to dis-assemble the 'Plasticell' frames (grooved top and bottom bars) by pulling the top staples, and making a saw cut to free up a wedge for holding 'real' foundation, then re-assembling.

[Newbee]

40 Acre Bees is absolutely right, bees will not go through an excluder if all that's on the other side is foundation. Remove the excluder and let them get some comb drawn up there before putting it back on.
Bees will really only draw comb during a flow.

THanks for the tip!
Was struggling w/ the same question myself after this weekends inspection (super's been on several weeks, no comb!)

- K