It’s a question that all new beekeepers are faced with and often their very first decision that frames their personal beekeeping preferences.
Flow includes comb guides with their brood frames to support natural comb in the brood box but the frames also include holes to give the beekeeper the opportunity to use wire and foundation if they would like to.
Going foundation-less does mean that extra care and time is needed in the early days of establishing a hive to ensure the bees are building straight comb.
Due to a particularly strong nectar flow season we’re having on the east coast of Aus at the moment (super strong colonies and swarms), I’ve adopted new methods to stay on top of some particularly quirky comb building my colonies have been creating lately (I look after dozens of hives across a large area). This includes using extra long comb guides (about 1.5 inch in depth) and cutting strips of foundation sheets (1-2 inch depth) and sticking this to the comb guide to give the bees some extra support in direction.
I’d love to know what others do to encourage straight comb and if they prefer to use with or without foundation.
Personally, I prefer to go without foundation when practical. Here is the US, commercially available foundation has been shown to contain significant residual toxins that can combine with new ones brought in with forage to result in sublethal damage to bee cognition. That is, bees will live, but in internal hive environments with synergistic chemical effects that cause serious impairments - tied to reduced colony health and hardiness.
Deep frames are tricky to let bees build out, however. Brand new comb is soft, and when filled with nectar can easily drop out of the frame on a warm spring day, even with careful handling. To remedy this, I fit all new deep frames with three or four bamboo skewers spaced vertically across. This helps secure the long paddles with side support that is crucially missing relative to the distance from top to bottom in the vast expanse of deep frames.
when I started out with my first flow hive I used foundationless frames. My brother who had prior experience beekeeping recommended wired foundation. We both set up hives at the same time. After a year- and being able to make direct comparisons: I was convinced that in the main I would use foundation for most of my brood frames. There are multiple reasons: the bees draw out the frames evenly, there is less drone comb, the frames are stronger. Now years down the track I have cycled out most of my foundationless frames.
I think especially for beginners- having a very even brood box- with frames that slide in and out like books on a shelf- is very handy and can save you a lot of grief, stings and dead bees.
having said that- I do still use founadtionless combs. I use them to produce finest quality pure cut-comb, and I don’t mind having one or two founationless combs in each brood box. In a brood box a single foundationless frame with a lot of drone comb in it can be a good way to let the bees make their drones but keep them confined to one part of the brood box- making the entire thing more neat and manageable in spring.
If you are intent on using foundationless- and are starting out- I strongly recommend at least checkerboarding them with foundation or drawn combs. That will save a lot of bother. Once you have more experience you could decide what you prefer.
Here in Australia we can get high quality foundation sheets. I have visited Tobin and Sons in Raglan NSW where much of it is made and can attest to the high quality of the pure bees wax they use. It’s an amazing family business run from a small shed- with an incredible old machine that has been in constant operation since the 1970’s. At 2-3$ a sheet- in is not that expensive at all if you ask me- it’s worth every cent. Paying $25 to have a perfect brood box can seem very cheap indeed compared to some of the issues you might run into with collapsing or crossed combs… Especially if you are starting out.
Thanks Bianca! I drill holes into the underside of the top bars and push the thick ends of the skewers in with a little glue. The ones I have are longer than the inside depth of the frame, so I snip them off at a length that just wedges onto the bottom bar.
Hi Bianca…thanks for starting this post as I think it is so important for the new beekeeper to think this aspect of beekeeping equipment over very carefully. And it ties in so well with all the posts regarding swarm prevention.
I think what is really at heart here is the beekeeping ideologies of “interventionist” versus “noninterventionist” beekeeping management…and every beekeeper gets to decide which strategy they will start with. The bees…well they try to cope as best as they can…and the beekeeper will often adjust his/her management styles over time to accomodate them. Beekeeping is the most specialized form of “animal husbandry” that exists that I have been exposed to…so many variables.
Regarding a few observations on foundation selection/non-selection that haven’t been mentioned so far that illustrate my preferences (which is to utilize heavily wax coated plastic foundation…preferably using my own wax for the coating).
1) I was surprised several years ago when I first starting posting on this forum that wax foundation was still used in Australia. The beekeeping industry in my part of Canada has used plastic foundation for approximately 30 years…mainly I suspect to a) cut down on assembly time (wiring frames is time-consuming) and b) a more structurally sound frame was preferable in the extracting process. When my Flowhive equipment arrived, I thought perhaps my order was incomplete…there wasn’t any foundation…that was my mindset after decades of beekeeping here…but obviously not in Australia…interesting.
2) I find that brood frames need to be manipulated often throughout the season to prevent swarming and to provide optimal conditions for the queen to maximize egg laying. Replacement of swarmed hives is very expensive…in loss of crop yield and bee replacement ($230 Cdn/1 kg package)…and a swarm rate of even 5% is unacceptable. So a generous supply of assembled frames with new foundation/built out brood comb is required…to insert into that broodnest and keep those bees working. If your timing is right, the queens lay into those partially drawn cells well before they are fully drawn out. Photo shows black plastic foundation filled with brood before any feed is stored.
Plastic foundation allows for frame regeneration…not possible with wax foundation or foundationless. Simply scrape old/feed bound frames down to the plastic foundation surface and reuse.
4) The plastic foundation base is impervious to wax moth…a real bonus.
5) We run our Flowhives along with traditional hives so we have extractors…and it’s reassuring to place recently built out frames into the extractor and not be concerned about frame “blowout”. Note that there is no wiring support required…those sheets of plastic foundation have been perfected to have the correct rigidity.
Foundationless frames come in handy for this scenario: a) varroa bait combs…a biological varroa control method b) comb honey production and lastly c) stretching the brood nest horizontally by placing these foundationless frames on the outer extremities of the brood chamber…the inside brood frames are solid worker comb so the queen is desperate to find drone cells to lay in…the photo shows a perfect drone pattern and in doing so the queen has stretched the brood nest (this is especially applicable to single brood box colonies where laying room is at a premium) …under my conditions a great swarm prevention technique. Note the built-in black plastic starter strip.
Though I only have experience with foundationless frames, I like your idea of combining some frames with foundation and some without - could be the best of both worlds
I agree with everthing here. I think beginners, especially, should start with foundation frames. It avoids a multitude of potential problems early on. Its very easy to move to foundationless later if desired.
I love and appreciate your great response, thank you. It’s interesting to learn about the preferred beekeeping applications around the world and I certainly agree with you where you mention there being 2 approaches to beekeeping - “interventionist” versus “noninterventionist”.
I would personally consider myself as a non-interventionist as I aim to learn as much as I can about bee behaviour and the characteristics of my own colonies in order to support them to support themselves as best as possible. I also advocate the importance for the beekeeper to adjust their methods to suit modern beekeeping practices that protect against pest/disease and suit their particular conditions e.g. using foundation if it means that you don’t you end up with a sticky mess, dead bees and not a good time for anyone.
For me plastic foundation has one limiting factor. I reuse my frames and prefer to have them sterilised before returning to hives. To do that I put frames into solar wax melter for a day. Wood handles this treatment, plastic doesn’t. But again, currently I have to replace 20 frames a year maximum. So, an extra effort used to re-tighten wires, put new wax foundation goes under “pleasant pastime” category. If it was hundreds of frames my thoughts would be different.
