Experience making own frames

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Last year I bought pollen gatherer via post. The post cost was as big as apparatus.



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When I go the stuff dealer, I buy all what I need in that summer. My Corolla is usually full of jars and packing materials.

Hmm, for how many hives is that then? - couldn't get half of what I need in a Nissan Terrano let alone a toyota dinky toy!
 
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About foundation color. If it has been made from capping wax, it is white and fragile.
When it has wax melted from black combs, color is yellow and it I flexible. Color comes from larva poo between larva silks.

Foundations have always terrible odor when they are plenty in the room.

Premier quality with pleasant scent. Never collapsed to that advertising.
 
*Thornes foundation, by the way, carries these descriptions
Premier is "British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand beeswax." (tends to be light coloured and smells nice)
Standard is "beeswax blended from a variety of sources" (in my experience this ranges in colour from fairly light to very dark with a variable aroma)

Yes .. When I started out I needed some wax for my starter strips so I bought Thornes Organic ... when I asked where it had come from they told me that it was certified organic and came from New Zealand ... it was about £18 for 10 sheets which rather left me gasping for air but it did look a nice colour and smelled like beeswax I find in my hives .. but with a cost of £1.80 per frame if used as directed it made me all the more determined to go foundationless.

Having said that Thornes product was good I saw some that a local beekeeper had bought from ebay and it smelled like axle grease .. God alone knows what was in it .. he tried a couple of sheets in one of his hives and the bees would not go near it. I suspect you get what you pay for ... but there is no decent commercial foundation available anywhere in the UK that is near to the price that Finman pays over there ... tells you something about the UK doesn't it ??
 
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We have short of wax now in Finland. Raw wax is 7€/kg. One foundation maker sells foundations only to those who has own wax to go give. He seems to know, that there is a danger in foreign wax, or it is too expensive to make business.
 
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Thanks for helping in cost counting, but it does not help.
Eh? You raised the issue of the cost of letting the bees build their own comb.

The costs I've outlined do not include the energy (honey) required to draw comb from foundation, which you you conveniently ignored, and you ignored the other things the beekeeper has to pay when they buy foundation.

The aroma of foundation is important. It may vary from colony to colony, but I've my bees won't touch coffee-coloured, bland-smelling, foundation so buying the cheaper 'standard' bigT stuff can be a waste of time and money. Some of their 'premier' has been rejected too, they chewed it to pieces and threw it out.

If I do buy foundation it comes from Peter Kemble at KBS, but I'm quite frugal with it. One sheet of foundation can make a lot of starter strips; fishing line is cheaper than frame wire and the bees seem to prefer it.
 
Ok. You save the family's economy with wax strips and fishing lines. That is well done. When you give up from car, you will be rich.

I can tell you, that aroma of honey comes from nectar of flowers. I have not met foundation aroma in honey. When you feed syrup to bees, the stuff is sweet but without aroma.

Coffee colored foundations.... Never seen such beewax, and I do not believe that such beewax exist. I have heard that if wax is handled in rusty iron pots, it takes dark color.

When I melt darkest combs in sun melter, it is always light yellow.

During my 50 years of beekeeping I have not met that bees chew down foundations and carry them out.
It sounds that you have much humbug in bee wax marketing in UK.

Premier standard... We have not such expressions about foundations.
I have seen that in UK frames are almost 3 times so expencive than on Finland and in Sweden. And polyhives have douple price

Beejay, you represented to me an unknown area of beekeeping and its affects on family economy.

I have tried wax strips, but never again. Half of frames were drone combs.

Fishing lines.... Steal wire is not expensive. When you use stronger steal wire, it can used several times and you need not install them again.
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Yesterday checked a swarm that I had caught and hived on home made frames with a starter strip bees had drawn out the frames completely covering the fishing line. The frames look as good as any I have that were drawn on foundation. I tend to use sea fishing line 30lb+ breaking strain just as good and cheaper than steel wire.
 
.stailess steel wire

UK price 200 g £ 9

Finland price 500 g £ 8

Langstroth Deep frames 50 in package

- UK price £ 93

- Finland £ 39

93/39 is 2.4 fold

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Coffee colored foundations.... Never seen such beewax, and I do not believe that such beewax exist.
I saw some at the weekend, still in the packet. The new beekeeper who had bought it didn't know if it was safe to use. It smelled unpleasant.

During my 50 years of beekeeping I have not met that bees chew down foundations and carry them out.
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.
It sounds that you have much humbug in bee wax marketing in UK.
Possibly! There are good and bad in every walk of life.

Beejay, you represented to me an unknown area of beekeeping and its affects on family economy.
It's the beekeeper's economy!

Fishing lines.... Steal wire is not expensive. When you use stronger steal wire, it can used several times and you need not install them again.
.stailess steel wire

UK price 200 g £ 9
Finland price 500 g £ 8

Langstroth Deep frames 50 in package

- UK price £ 93
- Finland £ 39

93/39 is 2.4 fold
Are you beginning to understand the difference now? ;)

Do the Finnish companies deliver to this part of the world?
There are a lot of beekeeping suppliers in Europe, all of them will deliver to UK. The main problem with buying from them that there are exchange rates, delivery etc,. Add those overheads to a small order and the price rises a lot.
 
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Start to understand difference. ... No ignition.

He is not fool who ask, but he is who pays.
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About fishing... It is miserable fishing trip if fish price is under £ 500/kg.
 

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