Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

Adding supers and going foundationless question

783 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  nobull56
I will soon be picking up some nucs in medium boxes. They were started on foundation. I have tried foundationless this year with mixed results (one good hive, one bad). If I want to transition these nucs to foundationless, what would be the best way to do it? I have thought of alternating frames of foundation with empty frames, and maybe pull the two outer frames from the original box and put them in the second box. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I don't have any more empty drawn comb to use.
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
If you can, stick your foundationless frames between already-drawn frames, or at a minimum, between foundation frames. Otherwise you may get wonky comb. Not a huge deal, IMHO, as I plan to turn the wonky comb into cut comb to eat. But too many wonks in a hive is not a good thing, for sure...
I put a super on a few weeks ago. I cut a piece of black plastic foundation, length wise into about 1" pieces. I used two pieces of that as starter strips on two new frames. I just stapled them into place with my air stapler. I put 6 already drawn frames plus the two with the plastic starter strips. They drew those two frames out great. Other than seeing the black starter strip through the comb, it looked just like the ones with foundation. I was pleased. I usually have a burr comb mess in the hives on a regular basis. Those turned out perfect, so you could imagine how pleased I was. I would suggest trying it.


Rob
A wood strip has a guild with wax rubbed on it seams to get them started quicker. Like Rob's plastic strips.
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top