What determines the thickness of the comb? Notice in my photo how the frame is fully drawn out and capped but it is not past the top or bottom bars. I pulled 5 frames out of hive and everyone was like this.
The worker brood comb thickness is determined by the size of the cells for a worker. Same for drone comb.
For stores they tend to draw the frames out so there is the correct amount of bee space between the faces of the comb on both sides. When they are behaving they make both adjacent frames about even and flat. Some days they do what they want though and you end up with wonky comb. If you insert an empty frame next to a drawn uncapped one with stores, they may keep drawing that one out and ignore the empty one. sometimes they have waves in the top surface between adjacent frames if they decide that is how they want to draw them out. They also have a habit of drawing out the outside of the first and last frame thicker because the other side is defined by the edge of the box and the gap is bigger.
The frame in that picture might be drawn a bit thin, but otherwise looks really nice. It looks even all the way across.
It's all about frame spacing. To get good straight combs the frames should be shoved together. Once drawn, they can be spread so there are 9 or even 8 frames in a 10 frame super. I recommend 10 frames in the brood nest and 9 above for easier honey harvest.
A forum community dedicated to beekeeping, bee owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeding, honey production, health, behavior, hives, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more!