[oregonsparkie]

Ive read where many prefer starter strip in their frames. Does anyone still use the wire with the strips to help support the drawn wax.
If so, do you use it on brood and super???

 

[Michael Bush]

I run all mediums with a lot of starter strips, foundationless frames and even put regular empty frames between two drawn combs.

I never use any wires in them. But then I never use any wires when I use wax foudation in them either.

 

[oregonsparkie]

Do you have any problem with the comb breaking when you extract?

I was thinking of using starter strips for all 10 frames. Do I need any drawn comb to seperate the starter strips frames??

 

[Scot Mc Pherson]

When you extract from new and young comb you just have to do it carefully, spinning the comb slowly until its mostly empty. After one or two extractions the combs strengthen a great deal and can be treated the same as reinforced comb.

My hives are foundationless, and I like it a lot, but I don't use an extractor, I either sell comb honey or extract via crush and strain and then use the wax to make candles and such. At least I plan to, I haven't been there yet, but I have enough wax to make quite a few candles now just from comb trimmings and scrappings.

------------------
Scot Mc Pherson
Foundationless Small Cell Top Bar Hives
BeeWiki: <A HREF="http://linuxfromscratch.org/~scot/beewiki/" TARGET=_blank>
http://linuxfromscratch.org/~scot/beewiki/</A>
Pics:
http://linuxfromscratch.org/~scot/pics/bees/

 

[Michael Bush]

Brand new wax is very soft. You cannot extract it easily even if it is wired but you can get away with it when it's wired and you're gentle. I wouldn't even try it with a foundationless frame that has new soft wax in it. But wait a week or two and the wax toughens up a lot from when it was new. Also you have to make sure they have attached it at the top and two sides and preferable a little on all four sides.

When they first build the comb you have to treat it like a top bar hive. Don't turn the combs sideways or the honey comb that isn't attched yet will break.

These kind of things get to be a habit when you have a lot of foundationless frames. They are a pain right at first until you change your thinking. Then they are quite natural.

I have only extracted foundationless frames with shallows and mediums, myself.

 

[GreenMountainRose]

> http://linuxfromscratch.org/~scot/pics/bees/

Wow! Those are impressive pictures and hives!

 

[danno1800]

WOW! Great pictures...that's practically a visual tutorial of TBH. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Hillbillynursery]

I did a test run last year in a four frame hand crank with the foundationless frames. I used a fork to scratch the cappings as I did not want to wait for water to boil as the stove was a wood stove that this other beekeepers wife uses to can veggies. I turned them only breifly then flipped then flipped when I thought I had half the honey out of the second side then flipped and finished then flipped and finished. As hard as I could crank I did no damage. Fresh frames I do think need the extra flip for each side. A radial extractor started real slow and slowly sped up should work fine.