Foundation question

[Dogged]

I'm putting together spare brood frames and have used all my foundation sheets with one frame left! Can I use a half depth foundation in this one? will they fill in the gap themselves? Okay, so I'm a cheapskate but I don't want to buy a new pack of foundation just for one sheet!

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes they will but the bit below the foundation will be drone comb. If you use a super frame and allow the bees to build drone comb off the bottom of the frame you can later cut it away as varroa control.

 

[Finman]

Can I use a half depth foundation in this one?

You get drone combs into the gap. But do it and you see.

It is better to bye foundations....

 

[ratcatcher]

here's my commercial frames, a full brood box gets 5 full sheets and the rest get wax starter strips, see Im a tight arse too,lol

http://youtu.be/SLR1u0WfmdU

these frames have been built in 10 days

 

[ratcatcher]

You get drone combs into the gap. But do it and you see.

It is better to bye foundations....

not always, a hive that I use wax starter strips on, has a newly built frame all with brood

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

They will only build as much drone comb as they need (20% ish usually) and they will do this whether it's foundationless or a full sheet of worker foundation

 

[oliver90owner]

It really depends on what is drawing that comb and when. It is likely to be drawn as drone comb, but may not be.

I can assure that swarms do not draw drone comb for brood as the first priority. Think about it a bit and you may undestand what I mean.

 

[enrico]

Make the last frame into a dummy board, make the distance from the board the same as the distance from a proper piece of foundation to the wall. That solves your problem!
E

 

[pargyle]

Do a search for foundationless and read Tom Bicks thread .... Then stop worrying ... There's quite a few of us that are completely foundationless and it works fine.

 

[madasafish]

Do a search for foundationless and read Tom Bicks thread .... Then stop worrying ... There's quite a few of us that are completely foundationless and it works fine.

In my limited experience: 4 years of no foundations: bees just draw whatever is best for them at the time...

 

[MJBee]

From the beginning of the season I use the super frame in the brood chamber method to control the number of drones (and varroa) in colonies I do not want to breed from.

The bees oblige by building drone comb BUT about the end of June they decide that they have enough drones and switch to worker comb - that is my cue to replace the frame with a full size brood frame.

The bees (seem to) know best.

 

[itma]

Make the last frame into a dummy board, make the distance from the board the same as the distance from a proper piece of foundation to the wall. That solves your problem!
E

Do make a dummy board.
But because a frame is a poor (and wasteful) starting point, just use some flat board (about 10mm thick) with a piece of same-width stripwood as its topbar.
This way, for a National, the board needs to be 14" by 8".



You'll need to buy some more foundation soon enough. It is good to have a few frames in hand. And its always better to have a couple of supers, with frames and wax, all made up, ready for immediate deployment. Keep ahead of the bees!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Yes they're filling drone comb with stores now; hopefully we're near the end of swarm season. The bad news is the mites are on the workers.

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes they're filling drone comb with stores now; hopefully we're near the end of swarm season. The bad news is the mites are on the workers.

Right now my bees are filling all available comb with nectar as there are big flows on at the moment but once over the bees will be back raising drones and given the nectar flows I doubt we are near the end of swarming but it will come.

 

[Finman]

not always, a hive that I use wax starter strips on, has a newly built frame all with brood

They are your hives. Do as you will...

I want that my combs are allawys as I want....waste of yield those unwantad combs.

 

[Finman]

.
I still tell that good combs are one Basic of good hive handling. If combs are what ever, it harms a lot hive inspections.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just checked on a swarm I caught in my bait hive last Friday (now in a national hive) four of the frames were wired with nobbut a starter strip - now all fully drawn with not one drone cells evident at all.