Why is the wiring of the frames better horizontal?

@Freebee2 @Dawn_SD @Peter48 Just curiosity…
1° question-
why is better to put the wiring into the brood frames horizontal and not vertical ?
I was looking at some Longstroth brood frames here in Italy and they all have the holes top and bottom… so I asked why was wired like that…A big known professional beekeeper told me that it was better vertical…
What do you think of this ?
2° question
They also told me that one can use a fishing line 10-15 kg that it works very well and it keeps the wax sheet very ferm…
?? your opinion ?

It doesn’t matter at all if the wire is vertical or horizontal, if it is well fitted and has some tension then it will hold the foundation in place either way under the pressures when extracting the honey when spinning and avoid it fracturing.
Using fishing line is an option if you don’t want to use wire but with wire when a sheet of foundation is in place a 12 volt electrical current can be used to heat the wire and the wax melts and bonds to the wire to hold it firmly in place.
There is also bee keepers that use nothing in the frames so that cut comb can be made but a frame like that in a spinner the comb will break due the centrifugal force.
Cheers

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@Peter48 Thank you Peter ! I think I have a car battery charger of 12 volt
as I have a Historical small Fiat 500 ( she will be 54 yrs old on the 17th of Feb )…and use it to re-charge her battery… I go down and check on the voltage… :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :honeybee:

As @Peter48 writes, it really doesn’t matter. In fact in the UK, they zig-zag the wire, which I really like as it doesn’t affect the queen’s laying pattern as much. There is a photo here, if you want to see what i mean:

Fishing line works brilliantly, you just can’t melt it into the foundation. It still holds the foundation well, and once the bees attach the was to the top of the frame, it is very solid. Fishing line is also a bit easier to handle than wire - easier to thread, cut and knot in place tightly.

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I bough 8 sheets of specially safe wax at the school on Tuesday night and the wire… but I don’t quite know how to fix it. I think you need a machine that I don’t have ! :woman_facepalming:

There are lots of videos on youtube showing you how to do it. All you really need is a couple of small nails for the ends of the wires, and a pair of pliers to pull firmly on the wire. Most pliers have a wire cutter built into them, so you can use that. Hard to get it really tight without a wiring jig, but it can be done.

Nice article here, including how to make a jig:
http://canberrabees.com/wiring-a-bee-hive-frame-with-basic-tools/

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@Dawn_SD, thank you…I just saw the link, fantastic and very well explained.
Also saw that I need the little round metal to put into the holes before the wire… and I also need to make the holes a little bit bigger otherwise they never fit in there…I will need to go out and buy them to… All of this will be a trip… :rofl: :rofl: :woman_facepalming: :woman_facepalming:

It will be a 12 volt battery charger Helene and it will do the job. It only needs a second or less to heat the wire to get the wax to melt to the wire.
Cheers

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@Peter48 @Dawn_SD you are of so much help, Thank you so much ! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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You don’t need those “grommets” or eyelets. They just stop the wire from cutting into the wood of the frame. If you are not a commercial beekeeper, you are unlikely to put enough wear and tear on the frames to make the eyelets necessary. :wink:

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Hopefully… next week I will have the courage to try and start all of this…
This are my sheets of wax… I need to cut them to size…as they are the D.Blatt sizes! Photos are not very clear… sorry…
IMG_0543|375x500
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@Dawn_SD ohh you safed part of my life… thank you !

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@Dawn_SD. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: beekeeper ? what is that ? I have not even started yes… and if I go on like this I probably will never start on time… Thank god is still winter here and cold so I can work slowly and try not to make too many mistakes… also on cutting to size the wax sheets… :woman_facepalming:

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Hi Pete, you must have an old battery charger like mine, that doesn’t some with a circuit breaker. The newer ones that come with a circuit breaker don’t work unless they are connected to a battery.

@Helene1, you need to have a board that the foundation sits on. So that the frame is not sitting on the table. Then you need a 12v embedding tool like the one at the end of my video.


The start of the video shows what happens when the wire is not embedded into the foundation properly. I used to sell colonies on a byo frames basis, then incorporate the colony into the customer’s frames. The customer didn’t embed the wires into the foundation properly.

I don’t do that any more. I supply the frames with the colonies these days.
cheers

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My jump starter works though, and it is new. You just have to keep pressing the Boost button as it only lets current flow for about 30 seconds

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A jump starter is different to a battery charger. A jump starter would be similar to using a battery. With a batter charger, using it to embed wire into foundation is shorting it out, therefore the safety switch will instantly activate. A battery doesn’t have a safety switch, so I’m assuming a jump starter doesn’t either.

I used to carry a fully charged jump starter in my boat as a back up. What a waste of time that was. It didn’t do anything to start my 7.3 litre diesel engine.

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You are right Jeff, a jump starter doesn’t have a circuit breaker that battery chargers have had added to them for about the last 25 years. My charger dates back well past then.
Another good clip on how to embed foundation into a wired frame, it is well explained how to do it right and the common mistake…
Cheers

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Thanks Pete, I thought I’d better explain in the comment because @Helene1 wouldn’t understand one word in the video.

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Well done cousin, it must be a struggle for Helene to get her head around bee keeping which is all new to her, when all the advice she gets is in English and not Italian. It must be making her feel like she is biting off more than she can chew sometimes. Give her a 10 for keeping going.
Cheers

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Hi Helene,

I live in the UK and don’t use any wire or wax foundation.

The Bees will sort all that out themselves. This picture was after only one week of a newly installed nucleus.

MVIMG_20190803_113752|375x500

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