Mann Lake medium frames and Mann Lake wax foundation

[K.E.N.]

I have to update my response to this thread! I was using ritecell but found out that the bees really don't like plastic. If they do draw on it it takes them 3 to 4 times longer to fill a frame. I have now stopped wasting money on foundation all together. In 1 week my hives have filled the foundationless frames I have installed. You wont catch me using foundation anymore. If I had known this back on May 2 when I installed 2 packages I would have surplus honey coming out of my ears.

[AstroBee]

Oh yes-- crappy divided bottom bars, aka propolis traps. So their answer was literally change your equipment and method of doing things so they can continue to produce products with "discrepancies."

There's a supplier I won't be doing business with.

No. Their answer was order the proper frames for the foundation that you want to use. Pretty basic - wedge top bar with hook foundation you need a split bottom bar. Why would you blame the supplier when the customer ordered incompatible parts? And for the "propolis traps" comment....well there are lots of small spaces in a hive that get filled with propolis and why is this such a problem? Besides, when you use the proper size foundation it will fit between the split and if they secure the foundation with propolis then great. Most of the time they fill it with wax.

[Charlie B]

I have to update my response to this thread! I was using ritecell but found out that the bees really don't like plastic. If they do draw on it it takes them 3 to 4 times longer to fill a frame. I have now stopped wasting money on foundation all together. In 1 week my hives have filled the foundationless frames I have installed. You wont catch me using foundation anymore. If I had known this back on May 2 when I installed 2 packages I would have surplus honey coming out of my ears.

I too have to update my post on this thread. No more plastic for me. I experimented with foundationless on three of my hives and pretty much had the same experience as K.E.N. I would not have known the difference had I not tried foundationless. I liked the plastic because it was much less work but now I really see the difference. Even when I alternated frames, they filled out the foundationless before the plastic.