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I Thought Going Foundationless Was a Modern Idea!

4K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  Michael Bush 
#1 ·
With some directions from my Uncle, I went back to Grandpa's farm to look for more of his bee equipment. It was where I was told, unfortunately the shed he kept it in collapsed several years ago on top of it. But there in the frozen snow and rotting wood was bee boxes and frames sticking up out of the mess. And guess what the first frame I pulled out was? A foundationless frame.

Antique tool Wood Tool
Finger Hand Thumb Nail


Seems like his apiary was cutting edge, 8 frame boxes, foundationless frames, Kelley type N slotted frames, basswood comb honey supers, and a drone trap.

I really wish he was still here now so we could discuss this new hobby for me. I really have learned alot about him the past few weekends going thru this old stuff.
 
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#3 ·
Foundationless is a very old practice man started tinkering with the wax to make bigger bees in theroy to haul more nector. Many years ago beekeepers keep bees for the honey to use as sugar to cook and sweeten with you just couldnt run to walmart and grab a bag because sugar was a luxuary not a need. The bees were also needed for pollenation on the family farms and orchards. think of bee gums with sticks hanging in the top of them and crush and strain that is how long foundationless has been around.
 
#5 ·
The equipment was in the shed. His bee yard was located behind the shed for many years. Mom said he kept around 20 hives, sold the honey at his country store he ran from 1941 till 1985. When I was growing up, he only had 1 hive that I remembered, it was located in a barn where I found some other stuff a few weeks back. That hive produce comb honey for personal use as I was growing up. I was too young to work the bees with him, I did harvest the supers with him one time. That was all about 40 years ago.
 
#9 ·
But I was thinking the Foundationless Frame was a modern idea of the last few years in a Langstroth hive. When did it come about?
When Lorenzo Langstroth took a Champagne shipping box and built wood frames to fit it and put some bees in it... Wax foundation didn't arrive on the scene for at least 50 years after that.

I have a copy of the Langstroth patent from Oct 5th 1852 and he states: "I draw a line of melted wax down the center of the frame, and the bees commence drawing their comb from there."
 
#12 ·
It is pretty rotten, been exposed to weather for many years.

I did use it for a template to make some of my own. That is what I brought the stuff back for, templates for design. I need to make an 8 frame hive now, and some comb supers. I found a box of the basswood boxes this weekend too. I need to order some thin foundation for them.
 
#11 · (Edited)
> When Lorenzo Langstroth took a Champagne shipping box and built wood frames to fit it and put some bees in it... Wax foundation didn't arrive on the scene for at least 50 years after that.


Well, perhaps not exactly.

Langstroth received an American patent for his frame system in 1852. But other frames of a different design had been around since 1789.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._L._Langstroth

Foundation was first made in Germany in 1842.
http://www.beesource.com/point-of-v...-brief-history-size-and-ramifications-part-1/

Another reference on foundation history, although in this one the first mention of foundation is in 1857:
http://www.beesource.com/point-of-v...nfluence-of-cell-size/comb-foundation-part-1/


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#14 ·
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