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A light wax coating should do the trick. Enough to leave the hex pattern intact.
Great! I was starting to feel guilty! Thanks!A light wax coating should do the trick. Enough to leave the hex pattern intact.
Peacekeeper - When you say brush, what kind of brush do you use? I was thinking of melting the wax in a pan and laying the foundation in it...but brushing sounds easier and less wasteful. Have you done this before?just brush on a light coat, they will like it just fine.
Boy, ain't that the truth!! That is my situation - I am a 2nd year beekeeper, and all I have is undrawn plastic honey super foundation. They have hardly touched it. I am told it is because they need a good nectar flow to make the wax.It seems that getting plastic frames drawn out the first time is the hardest.
It's a catch 22 in a way - I could feed 1:1 sugar syrup to get them to make wax, but then they'll just store the sugar in the super. Too bad there's not a secret ingredient you can add to the sugar which says "just use this sugar to make wax, but don't store any of it..."![]()
I couldn't agree more. I'm in the same situation. I'm feeding right now and the bees are consuming over a quart a day of 1:1 syrup. But I'm drawing comb right now. I was concerned that the girls were storing this syrup, but Monday I went out and sampled what they stored and it tasted like light honey.Too bad there's not a secret ingredient you can add to the sugar which says "just use this sugar to make wax, but don't store any of it..."
Actually, there is. It's called a beekeeper that knows what is going on in the hive. Bees draw wax before they start storing the syrup.
You can also put a plastic frame between two frames of brood. The bees will draw it out. (and the queen will lay in it.) Then move that frame up into the honey super. The bees will hatch out and you have a drawn comb ready for honey storage.
And if by chance the bees do start storing some syrup in your honey super frames, put that frame between 2 frames of brood and the bees will use that syrup to feed the baby bees.
The main thing is a beekeeper who monitors their bees. You have to know what they are doing, and how to work with them. You can't just hope the bees will do what you want them to do.