Black wires in super frames

[Black Comb]

This year, for the first time, some of my super frames are showing black wires which are visible after extraction. A few of the cells on either side are also blackish, although not on all.
Foundation is Thorne's "premier" so it's all from one source.
I assume wire used in foundation is stainless, or am I being naive?

[Jon]

If you have ever treated for nosema spores with acetic acid fumes it will blacken any exposed wire.
Don't think I have ever fumigated supers though.

[prakel]

I assume wire used in foundation is stainless

I doubt that it is, unless specifically stated.

One of the reasons I always wire our frames with stainless is that the 'ordinary' frame wire that some of the suppliers sell is, in my experience, atrocious quality. Stainless in a wired frame will give a few comb changes, the other stuff won't.

[The Drone Ranger]

Dont think the wire is stainless because as Jon says any exposed wire gets eaten by acetic acid treatments
After a while it becomes black dust

[Black Comb]

I've never treated the supers with acetic.
Pretty sure this is the first year I have seen it.
Perhaps it's the acid in he honey that is the cause.

Also, it's just the odd frame. Probably 6 frames total in 30 supers.

[The Drone Ranger]

Could well be something like that
Prakel will be right about the wire because stainless would be more expensive it would be mentioned in the sales blurb if the suppliers used it
Must check Thornes web page
Did you find the wax a bit dark this year ?

[Black Comb]

Oddly enough I was thinking wax was a bit lighter this year.
Perhaps it's the white cappings from my 99.5% amm. :)

[The Drone Ranger]

Nice one Black Comb you must be in a good area for breeding
The wax foundation seemed darker to me The premier stuff is UK sourced I'm told

[Black Comb]

There was a bit of tongue in cheek with that one DR. I wish, but lots of mixed blood here.
If its only a few frames it won't matter, just hope the bulk are not affected in future.

[busybeephilip]

Foundation is Thorne's "premier" so it's all from one source.
I assume wire used in foundation is stainless, or am I being naive?

Hi Black Comb

Thornes use galvanized iron wire for wiring their foundation, I use this for my rolled foundation and you can easily buy it on 10-20 Kg spools in the UK you would hardly ever need that amount. It is easier to work with than stainless steel. You are correct about the acetic acid, it will corrode the wire very quickly.

Thornes premier is said claimed to be UK but could also be french/german as theirs is of similar quality to the UK stuff. (you always see Paul / Gill's face beaming when a big sack of wax blocks is traded in for standard wax)

The standard grade of foundation is a Heinz formulation chinese, African, you can tell by the smell that it is mostly chinese and heaven knows whats in it.


Personally I store my supers wet, as it seems to keep our wax moth away. I use a 20 frame radial which dries the frames pretty good at high speed. In the spring some of the honey left will be fermenting but the bees dont seem to mind.

In my area we only have to lesser moth so we dont need to worry too much about moths, however, if you have the greater moth then you would need to bag and freeze your supers 24hrs before storage other wise they will be dust in the spring. slight wax moth damage can be repaired by the bees, I have in the past put badly eaten supers on in desperation only to find that the bees redraw the wax again.

[busybeephilip]

WOW - I've just been promoted to Senior member !!

[busybeephilip]

Oddly enough I was thinking wax was a bit lighter this year.
Perhaps it's the white cappings from my 99.5% amm. :)

Yes, White cappings is one of the nice things about the Amm bee. This was one of the traits that Bro Adam admired about Amm and he maintained it in the Buckfast bee. The Italian bee produced what I call a wet capping, it does not look well in cut comb or sections nor for showing a frame for extracting, this is because the italian does not leave a large air space between the honey and the wax capping. Carnolians have a pure white comb capping too.
Amm and carnolians both being dark bees can be identified by the color of their queens, in general the carnolian queens tend to be leather brown compared to the Amm dark queens although some Amm queens can have a small fine band hint of orange in the first abdominal segment right next to the thorax but not in the second segment.

The Amm bee also has a round ass while the Italians and carnolians tend to have a pointed ass (I'm not joking) , its to do with the broadness of the rear abdominal segments.

Also, to tell the difference between dark Amm and dark carnolian a sure method is to do a wing morphometery measurment as the two races have very distinct Dischoidal shift and Cubital index vaules.

[The Drone Ranger]

Thanks for that good info busybeephilip much appreciated congrats on recent "promotion" lol!
Some people are very lucky Black Comb I have a friend who bred this queen in her own back yard and gave her to me
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/08/18/a1c7ca18e6308ca61949de73d39bcc5f.jpg

[Black Comb]

Thanks for the info. I have only black queens now, not studied their derrieres but will so so in future!

[busybeephilip]

Looks like a nice queen to me. You should try to get one of the twist and turn cages for clipping and marking, they are much better than the type with the string mesh which can get cut and it takes a bit of fiddling to make the queens wing back up over the threads. Maisemore have them at around £8 and Thornes have them too but a bit more expensive

[Jon]

2126

Look at the ass on that one I posted this morning!

[busybeephilip]

Yes a nice egg bear'in hips, wish I had more like em

[Jon]

I took 6 out of Apideas this morning and they all looked like that one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxGcwNlMTAo). All sisters.

[alancooper]

I took 6 out of Apideas this morning and they all looked like that one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxGcwNlMTAo). All sisters.

Jon,
I have a very large hive that is bound to swarm before long. I would like to split and make increase if you still have one of these sisters, can you give me your contact details? I could probably collect.
Alan.