Bees will draw plastic foundation out jsut fine, if that is their only option. the seem to prefer foundationless, then wax, then plastic. I havent had very much luck getting them to draw out plastic frames in position 1 or 10. it seems like they just never get motivated enough to draw out the side facing the exterior of the hive. as far as a max number of frames... i doubt it matters. a package is often installed on bare foudnation, and many folks have no problem with this. I've adopted a "meh, they'll figure it out" kind of philosophy with my bees. It has made working with them a lot more enjoyable and less stressful. But, I'm a small time guy with less than 20 hives and no real goal of making lots of honey or lots of bees.
Replacement comb
I'm installing a few hives next week, replacing some hives that did not over winter. I need to remove a few frames(2-4??) that have too much pollen in them and then get them some "new" room for laying. I am a bit low on drawn deeps to replace with. I'm thinking of placing a few frames of plasticell foundation frames in the hive when I install, which will be replacing the pollen frames. Will they draw out the frames and do you think it will be even?
Is there a max number of undrawn frames that I should not exceed per hive when doing this?
Should the undrawn frames be in the outer most location in the box or somewhere in the middle? Thanks, juzzer
Is there a max number of undrawn frames that I should not exceed per hive when doing this?
Should the undrawn frames be in the outer most location in the box or somewhere in the middle? Thanks, juzzer
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I recently bought two nucs and each had a solid black plastic frame/foundation. It was put in there as the "one they were drawing out". When i transffered the 5frms over into the 10frm box, my other 5 were empty foundationless. Soooo...three weeks later they've drawn out almost all 5 of my foundationless. (3 all the way/the other two partial but working on it) and have totally ignored that blk frme/foundation in BOTH hives. Last nite I took em both out and replaced em with foundationless.
I agree with what Kpeacock said tho. They'll draw out whatever is at hand but probably preffer to make their own wax comb.
I agree with what Kpeacock said tho. They'll draw out whatever is at hand but probably preffer to make their own wax comb.
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
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