Wire with foundation less frames?

I’m thinking I’d like to try letting my bees do their thing without foundation wax. Should I add support wire to support the natural comb?

There are several post on this, my want to search. but in short I am doing it without any wire support just natural comb and they are doing quite well even looking for eggs and larvae I have not broken one frame/ comb yet knock on wood crossing my fingers

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I must have missed the ones that mentioned if wire was needed or not. Thanks for your comment. It was just what I hoped for.

Not a problem, sometime hard to find some items on any forum. Vary happy with mine and how straight they are building it all.

Hi Sherry, you will find if you do use wire, it will be much easier to handle the frames without the comb breaking. Dee uses fishing line & I have also used some frames with fishing line that worked well.

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Apparently fishing line works real good, just ask Dee, she uses it. I used some that belonged to someone else when I got a colony started for him. I thought it worked really well.

Why don’t you try it Jape? You may never use ss ever again.

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And for hobby beekeepers. @jape your methods suit you because honey harvest is your one overriding goal. There is nothing wrong with that. A lot of us here don’t worry about honey yields. Horses for courses :smile: That reminds me. Must get a bet on the Grand National. I wonder if HHH has a tip?
PS I use deeper frames than Lang ones so frame stability is important. Wired foundation or fishing lined starter strip frames.

Don’t be paranoid. Not everybody is out to get you. Especially here :wink:

Thank you for your info. I will try both, some with wire or fishing line to support the natural brood box comb.

Life is odd. Just as well really :innocent:

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Hiya Dee, what is the advantage of using fishing line over wire? Do the bees not chew through fishing line?

Not much I shouldn’t think. I just happened to have a reel of heavy duty line in husbands workshop. I have noticed that sometimes the queen won’t lay where wires are whereas she does over fishing line…but that’s not really significant.
I’ve never had the line chewed.
Another thing I’ve seen used is those bamboo barbecue skewers. The are just the right thickness to push up between the bottom bars into a small predrilled hole in the top bar , then neatly trimmed off top and bottom. That looks quite nice.

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Might be easier to cut comb out of the frame with the mono line rather than wire. I like that bamboo idea! Thanks.

There is no need to reinforce super frames with anything. I never do
You can actually even spin them if you do it carefully

We use a 3cm strip of foundation at the top and welding wire strung horizontally (4 passes). It works great, the bees do not seem to mind and build the comb right center of the welding wire, so the queen also does not seem to mind. The welding wire comes in a roll for MIG welding, hundreds of meters on a roll, cheap and effective. Stainless? Why? The bees cover it with wax and that makes it absolutely rustproof, even in our rusty island environment.And the frames are sturdy and can handle anything. In short: Simple, cheap, strong and effective.