Bees making a mess of Manleys

[Rob55]

My bees (two separate hives) have made a bit of a mess of drawing out my Manley frames. Instead of drawing them out as normal, quite a few of the frames have been built onto with wild comb, either parallel with the face of the foundation or perpendicularly bridged between the frames. I have had to resort to ripping the wild comb out with the hive tool and intermixing these frames between the ones that have been drawn out properly, which wastes time and wax and they still end up a bit uneven. There is no extra gap between the frames, they are all in tight in the super.

Anyone else had this problem?

 

[davnig]

they generally need to be placed closer together to draw, say 10/11 to a box then reduced down to 9 say once drawn - this reduces chance of wild comb

 

[MonseigneurBienvenu]

they generally need to be placed closer together to draw, say 10/11 to a box then reduced down to 9 say once drawn - this reduces chance of wild comb

I don't think this will work very well with Manley frames.

 

[Arfermo]

The accepted theory is that the bee space between frames needs to be no wider than enough to allow bees to work back to back and no more ie 13mm at most. Any more and you get a problem such as the one you have?

 

[fiftyjon]

My bees (two separate hives) have made a bit of a mess of drawing out my Manley frames. Instead of drawing them out as normal, quite a few of the frames have been built onto with wild comb, either parallel with the face of the foundation or perpendicularly bridged between the frames. I have had to resort to ripping the wild comb out with the hive tool and intermixing these frames between the ones that have been drawn out properly, which wastes time and wax and they still end up a bit uneven. There is no extra gap between the frames, they are all in tight in the super.

Anyone else had this problem?

I take it that the top and bottom bars are the correct thickness for the Manley side bars?

 

[Rob55]

The top bars are the correct size and the frames are correctly spaced, anyone familiar with manleys would know that 10 frames just fit snugly in the super with no gaps.

 

[Foxylad]

Does the super contain only Manley Frames?

It can be a problem getting them drawn out to start with.

Make sure there mixed with standard frames first, this helps also with getting them drawn quicker. Manley frame, then a standard mixing only a few in each box.

Once drawn then can be placed 9 together.

 

[Foxylad]

Your correct 10 can fit as can 12 in a standard super.

However maybe to snug once fully drawn and with bees on the frame. One less would give a little room.

 

[Teemore]

On occasion I have had the odd instance where bees have built wild comb parallel to the foundation when i have filled a super with manley frames but this is only an occasional event. If you have a drawn frame or two to add to a super that is otherwise full of frames and foundation, it encourages the bees to keep the spacing right as they begin to draw out the other frames and encourages them into the super too.

 

[Suzi Q]

I have a few supers on with manley frames, 10 in a super, I haven't had a problem, in fact the comb has been drawn beautifully. Propolised the side bars though! With castellations it is easy to pull out a frame to check if capped, very difficult with Manley frames.

 

[itma]

I've got a fair few National supers (both cedar and poly) with Manleys, and will be getting more.
I've even specifically got a radial extractor for handling Manleys.
I like them.

I've never had any drawn at strange angles to the foundation.

Given the persistence of bees, I'd have removed any such mis-drawn frames and at minimum scraped them back to the midrib before returning them to the hive.
Once they have got an idea, they can be very stubborn indeed.



Back when I started, I had problems getting the bees to go up and use the ruddy super at all.
So I tried interleaving the Manleys with SN4/5's and even SN1's (without spacers) to get closer spacing for starting comb-drawing, and I tried three different types of foundation ...
I didn't spray them with syrup. About the only thing I didn't try!
I ended up putting a couple of SN4's into the brood, getting them started, and then moving them to the super, in amongst the Manleys. That worked!
Since then, no such problem. But I do try to put at least one drawn frame into the middle of any otherwise all-foundation box.


I've used some with unwired foundation - for cut comb. Only thing there is NOT to interleave them between already-drawn Manleys. The bees build way out from the drawn frames and only leave a thin space for the 'cut comb' frame - not the right idea at all.

 

[fiftyjon]

The top bars are the correct size and the frames are correctly spaced, anyone familiar with manleys would know that 10 frames just fit snugly in the super with no gaps.

And the bottom bars?

I've never had trouble with 10 Manley frames in a national super with all frames starting off with foundation, as others have said the bees seem to draw them out.

 

[MuswellMetro]

well, my bees to draw manley out correctly I alternate them with drawn SN4 or SN5, once drawn, no problems

cut comb manley on thin starter strips i always put between sn4s

i even tried turning the hive to warm way so frames ran NE-SE to magentic north, but stopped at using bent coat hangers to dowse the ley lnes

 

[Barbarian]

I use Manley super frames with wired drone foundation. I start with 10 frames in a super. Once the comb has been drawn, capped and extracted, I put the drawn frames into a 9 frame castellated super. At 9 frame spacing the frames do not get propolized together.

Some questions :-

Was the foundation fresh when given to the bees ?
Was the hive level ?
Was the hive strong ?
Was there a nectar flow on ?

Hope you have better luck.

 

[BILL.HEARD]

I use 90% Manleys I never usually have a problem however if you can put a couple of drawn frames in with foundation it does help to get them started especially if you store your combs wet like I do.