When bees choose a newly installed conservation log hive i am always curious which way they decide to build the honeycomb within the conservation log hive. I must say every time it amazes me. The speed of comb construction is phenomenal. Colony can easily fill the full space within three months or so. Initially the pieces of bait comb we put in to attract the a swarm get dislodged and dropped to the floor of the hive. the bees then start constructing the comb. They start building several combs at the same time. After a few days 3 to 4 combs have already been build. All this to make sure the queen has room to start laying her eggs. Once the honeybees get this initial work done i notice a break for a few days, assuming they used up all the food stores they brought with them at the time of the swarming out from their original location. So then the bees get to forage for new nectar and pollen supplies. The honeycomb construction continues on and before we know it the bees have build 7 or 8 sheets of honeycomb about 3 foot long.
Once the bees come close to the entrance we see that most of the time the angle of the comb compared to the entrance is at 90 degrees. Thus completely blocking the entrance. From reading this has to do with thermal regulation within the hive.