Waxing the Perma Comb

[tom h.]

I finialy got my order of perma Comb the other day and the note inside the case said to wax the comb and spray it with a mixture of 1:1 sugar water with Honey Bee Healthy. I mixed the HBH and SW and ordered some bees wax from Dadant so I'm waiting for the wax. My thoughts are how do you put the wax on the combs?

By the way I used the SW & HBH to calm my bees the other day and to my supprise it works very well.

[Brent Bean]

I have a small double boiler that I got at Wal-mart for about nine bucks, and a small electric hot plate that I use to heat it with. After the wax melts I use a China bristle paint brush to coat the foundation. I found that the Bees will draw out foundation that I have coated with wax faster than foundation without.

[Michael Bush]

If what you're looking for is acceptance you can just rub some wax on the surface or melt some and paint it on (with a baker's brush). The HBH syrup probably helps too. Giving them no other choice helps too. Don't put wax foundation in, just put the PermaComb in. Drawn combs can be from anything, but don't give them a choice on what to work.

I was looking for small cell, so I heated the PermaComb to 200F and immersed it in 212F beeswax and shook off the excess to get 4.95mm equivelent cells.

[AstroBee]

If you're just using PC for honey supers then waxing is probably not needed. I have a couple of supers of PC and haven't had much trouble getting the bees to use it. It is very true that you do not want to give them an option. absolutely no wax foundation while getting them to accept the PC. This is my third season with PC and I'm very pleased with it - just wish I had trimmed off the tabs on the bottom of the frames BEFORE putting them in service. I extracted yesterday and I should have taken pictures of the PC frames. I had frames that were about three inches deep of perfectly capped honey. After my first season, I wasn't very impressed with PC because my bees didn't draw the wax cap out passed the plastic cell and this made extracting a pain - yes, I had the hackler honey punch, but its still a hassle. Since that first season, the bees now jump right on to the PC - the only problem is keeping the queen out of it [img]smile.gif[/img]