Everyone Needs Their Own Space

So there was a very cool observation during my last inspection and a great learning experience. As I was inspecting the middle box I noticed that a foundationless frame I had pulled out was not completely drawn out. It looked a little something like this, forgive me for my lack of MS Paint skills.

My first thought was that it was normal, the bees just hadn't gotten around to drawing the comb all the way down to fill out the entire frame. However, while I was sliding it back into the box I noticed a very large piece of burr comb on the frame behind. It appeared to be drawn onto the outer frame and I was frustrated because I thought I had fixed this problem by adding a 10th frame. Upon closer inspection thought it was actually drawn upwards from the top of the frame below, and the outer frame was just fine. After some cursing I realized I would have to remove the middle box in order to cut this comb out. It was either that or somehow reach my hand down in between frames. I wasn't planning on getting that far down into the hive, but it had to be done. So why did they create this comb?

I am quickly learning about the importance of "bee space". This is what Lorenzo Langstroth discovered in 1852, the space in which two bees can move past each other back to back, 1cm. This is the space between two drawn frames of comb, any more space results in burr comb as the bees try to ensure this bee space. The problem of foundationless frames is that they don't really offer any sort of guide for the bees leaving them to their own devices, resulting in some very unexpected architecture. Because I had failed to properly line up the frames from box to box, the bees fixed the bee space on their own. There are actually frame spacers you can buy that will ensure the frames between boxes line up vertically and I am starting to wonder if I should have invested in some of these.

As you can see, the foundationless frame allowed open space for the bees to build comb both up from the frame below and down from the paint stick guide on the upper frame. Because these didn't actually line up at the point in which they would have joined it caused both to stop. The top frame looks incomplete because the large shark fin shape comb filled the rest of the space below.

All in all a new lesson learned and something to keep in mind when I add new boxes, maybe I will even purchase a few frame spacers to add next season.