Plastic Small Cell Foundation

[chief]

I want some small cell plastic foundation. I heard that Dadant has some but I couldn't find it on their web site. Any idea where I can get some?

[Spring Island Bees]

Chief,

Here is the link for the small cell foundation at Dadant:

https://www.dadant.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=23_38&sort=2a&page=2

Jennifer

[drobbins]

Chief,

I sent Pierco an email saying lot's of folks here are interested in small cell and asking if they had any plans to produce it
I got no reply
maybe if lots of people sent similar emails they'd get the hint
I wouldn't think the tooling they'd need to make it would be any harder to make than what Dadant had to do to make the wax stuff
it might be real helpfull if the bees couldn't rework it

Dave

[magnet-man]

I have seen the bees work portions of PLASTICELL into drone cells, so nothing will be perfect. I think there is someone that makes small cell plastic foundation.

[Janice Lane]

There is small cell fully drawn plastic now called Honey Supercell.

http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000900

http://www.honeysupercell.com/sblog/

[wade]

I was interested in the honey supercell frames, and was waiting to see how it turned out as they were developing it not too long ago. They finished it but each frame costs $5 plus postage, in lots of 20 I think. Each frame weighs 2 pounds. Anyway, that option is out there but I opted to go with Dadant starter strips and work towards foundationless frames.

[drobbins]

magnet-man

I'm curious
does Plasticell have the cell imprints embossed in the plastic like Pierco?
when I first started beekeeping last year I used the Peirco that came in my starter kit and the bees drew it absolutely perfectly, every cell exactly the same
I thought maybe they couldn't rework it with it actually embossed in the plastic like Pierco but maybe I just got lucky

Dave

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I did not have very good luck with the bees drawing out the plastic small cell foundation.

Maybe about 40% was drawn out like it should have, the rest was drawn out as drone cell or they made wild comb inbetween the frames. The starter strips were almost all drawn out to drone cell.

[Dick Allen]

I've got some of that plastic small cell, too. The bees mostly ignored the foundation, though even in strong hives. What they did draw out consisted of patches with mostly drone or burr comb. Mine was not waxed, however. I've since waxed some of it, but have yet to put it back into any hives to check.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I think the reason I get so much drone cell drawn on the sc foundation is mostly due to the fact that I use Permacomb everywhere else and the bees are always looking for a place to put drone cells.

Putting drone cells just inbetween the boxes is just not enough for them. Not having a lot of drone comb in my hives may be another reason that my mite counts are always very low in my PC hives.

[chief]

Spring Island Bees,

Is the stuff that the link points to plastic? They don’t seem to say although the picture seems to hint at it. Also does anybody know if it is wax coated? I have always had good luck with the wax coated permacomb.

[Janice Lane]

I've never used it, but here's a link to a discussion on Duralit.

http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000909

[ July 18, 2006, 10:03 PM: Message edited by: Janice Lane ]

[Michael Bush]

I had the same problems with the small cell plastic. The bees did not want to draw it unless they were already regressed and even then they sometimes didn't like it.