Quote Originally Posted by moteus View Post
Thank you all the comments are helpful. Why would you want starter strips in brood frames?
I thought they were only used in supers for selling honey comb, like Heather.
I use starter strips or the witness mark of cut out frames on all my super frames. I haven't bought super foundation for years.

As others have said I use starter strips in brood frames in order to allow the colony to produce as many drones as they feel comfortable with. I like to put 3 in each colony and it usually works out at about one frame full of drone cells. The other starter strip frames usually end up with worker cells with very little mixing of the 2 sizes. Once the drone frame has been drawn I put wide spacers on that particular frame despite it being hoffman so that its spacing is a bit greater than normal to accommodate the deeper cells.

I support the starter comb in the brood box with fishing line as Jon does but I find I can extract unwired super combs without breakages so I have no need to use fishing line or wire. All this saves me time and money and I think the bees are happy to have work to do. I don't buy this claim that a pound of wax costs 8 pounds of honey. I think contented bees make honey and giving work to bees in every stage of development helps.

However, if you are taking an exam it's probably best not to mention anything that sounds unconventional in case the examiner happens to be unsympathetic.