Expanding the Brood

Limit the use of CombForms™ between brood frames to no more than 25%. 

One well known rule of beekeeping is "Don't split the brood". CombForms™ allow passage of workers, queens and drones so they can be placed between brood combs when being used to guide the hive to expand, but bees do this best when encouraged to make gradual changes. This means a weak hive or a nucleus hive with three frames of brood can be encouraged to produce one more frame of brood by placing one empty frame between two comb forms just at the edge of the brood ball. If you have six frames of brood you can encourage them to produce additional brood by adding an empty frame between two comb forms on both sides of the brood ball.

One CombForm™ is inserted within the brood ball to correct misshapen comb

Additional CombForms™ are used outside the brood ball in the areas of misshapen comb.

Manage the Empty Space

Use one or more CombForms™ to fill extra empty space by placing them at the hive wall. 

The CombForms™ is being used as a perforated follower board. It helps promote ventilation at the hive wall which can help dissipate condensation moisture but keeps the bees from filling the empty space with bridge comb.

Swarm Prevention

Once bees have decided to swarm the Aspinwall method and CombForms™ will not prevent swarming. 

 It appears that swarm control using CombForms™ must begin before the bees begin preparations for swarming. This is one area where the use of CombForms™ is going to require significant additional research. Whereas most of the other ways that CombForms™ can be used are able to be easily evaluated, swarm control evaluation can be tricky. If the hive doesn't swarm - is it because the CombForms™ worked? If the hive does swarm is it because the CombForms™ failed? In theory CombForms™ should work as well as the separators patented by Aspinwall - but for now, only the bees know for sure.