Foundation suppliers

[Tom Bick]

I doubt the bees would ever waste their time using honey to produce wax. They would use nectar and its clear when there are good nectar flows and a couple of other important factors they can build comb at an impressive rate.

 

[oliver90owner]

amount so often quoted for the amount of 'honey' used to make wax

Absolutely spot on. Using paper money instead of gold reserves is one way of skewing the truth

Feed all sugar and they won't use any honey?

Please, all, remember it is 'honey crop saved', not necessarily honey withdrawn from their piggy bank. A subtle difference. Beeks looking ahead, just a tad.

 

[REDWOOD]

I must say I do like T's and cwj foundation (same stuff), it always seems to be a brighter wax than other suppliers although the others bees seem to like just the same, but IMHO I would stay away from wax Made in Asian lands.
























































t

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

I have not yet attempted for them to build their own super foundation. The one or two frames that I gave them, they started from the bottom of the frame, so did not progress any further.

How about starting the boxes below the brood nest?

 

[Jed D]

WOW , Thanks Gents... That took me a few minutes to read..
And now to comment on a few of your points raised.

Our local Assocation doesn't do a foundation deal as yet ! But I will raise this with the Chairman. A bulk buying thing could be good...

Organic wax !!!! I can't see me using this , problem being , we have six drifferent sites available to us for 2015 and everyone will have OSR within a mile, So that could quickly pollute any organic properties.
( we can't avoid the stuff )

Natural or their own comb I like the idea of this ' but 10 colonies have their work cut out , supplying the local farm shop and I want to keep it simple. They are also on the said Farmers land. Local Honey for the Local shop for Local People + the odd Tourist !! ( Not that Tourists are odd )........
I may try some starter strips with a colony... I also want to try the Roses Hive Method ' But both of these will be at the far end of the garden , where I can keep a better eye on them..

Fresh Foundation, sounds good , with a nice aroma...

Honey > Wax.... Around half of this Foundation will be brood , mainly for a double brood set up.. I'm hoping to go double brood within the OSR flow , which means, I'm not to worried about Honey / Wax Ratio . We done this on some Hives last year and it worked well , The one thing I did notice was , as the flow came to an end, everything on single brood went into Swarm mode. While I understand that not every year is the same ( who knows what mother nature will throw at us ) I want the option to give the Girls as much room as they want. Hence the 10 new brood boxes.. The double brood bit also worked well as the season ended , allowing us to reduce down to a single brood box , leaving only the nice clean combs..

Other suppliers I'll have a look at other suppliers ' but not importers.
I don't need anyone to ship foundation from China !!! That's just Bonkers. or Bee's from Italy.......

As you can probably tell I'm at work with far to much time on my hands. And I should be looking like this at the moment..

Thanks for your input..

 

[Jimmy]

Jed
My branch offers M'more foundation at ~half list price due to bulk buying and trading in at least 50lbs wax at once

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Jed
My branch offers M'more foundation at ~half list price due to bulk buying and trading in at least 50lbs wax at once

It's a newbie question (and a major drift, but the OP has his answer), so where does wax come from apart from cappings? Old brood frames are not a serious source so, broken super frames, large-scale crush and strain or what?

 

[mbc]

It's a newbie question (and a major drift, but the OP has his answer), so where does wax come from apart from cappings? Old brood frames are not a serious source so, broken super frames, large-scale crush and strain or what?

I'm a proper cardiganshire chap who saves every bit of wax at each apiary visit, I scrape crown boards and frame tops and tails, recycle old combs and scrape every qx at end of play each season. I make all my own foundation so I need as much as I can get especially as the cappings wax mostly gets used for candles.
Old brood frames do provide the bulk of darker wax.

 

[oliver90owner]

Old brood frames are not a serious source

Why not? Over a kilo of foundation goes into a 14 x 12 box, so well over a kilo comes out. Might not recover it all, but most can be recycled with care. As per mbc, cappings are the cream off the top.

 

[peteinwilts]

Other than hearsay, how do you know the foundation is from China or wherever? presumably, it is not advertised as being from such places?

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Old brood frames are not a serious source

Why not? Over a kilo of foundation goes into a 14 x 12 box, so well over a kilo comes out. Might not recover it all, but most can be recycled with care. As per mbc, cappings are the cream off the top.

Thanks RAB. Was working on the principle (read here) and the observation that old brood comb is mainly coccoons. Will persevere harder through the stench of slumgum and make the solar extractor I have promised myself. Attacking brood frames with a heat gun was not the way forward.

 

[madasafish]

Thanks RAB. Was working on the principle (read here) and the observation that old brood comb is mainly coccoons. Will persevere harder through the stench of slumgum and make the solar extractor I have promised myself. Attacking brood frames with a heat gun was not the way forward.

I can recommend solar extractors.. They are very effective..
(As a tip I made the clear panel from two layers of clear plastic sheet separated by a bit of wood and edges sealed to give a double glazed unit.. (far lighter than glass)

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Other than hearsay, how do you know the foundation is from China or wherever? presumably, it is not advertised as being from such places?

Well, if we're discussing the company that sells cheap hives imported from China, then it's a fair assumption to make that the foundation comes from there as well.

 

[Jed D]

When I said " I have no real amount of Wax to trade "

Both Pete D and I , collect n save every bit of Wax we come across , Brace Comb , Crown boards, old frames , cut outs etc....

The problem being we traded 52lbs in last year !
Which means our wax bucket has about 5lb in at the moment.
While I can't speak for brother Pete,, My cappings also go elsewhere' but don't tell him !

Anyway, I'll stick with who I know , Foundation wise..


Must go , OA treatment today 20+ hives to annoy..

 

[BeeJayBee]

Other than hearsay, how do you know the foundation is from China or wherever? presumably, it is not advertised as being from such places?

Guesswork?

T**s, for example, say their Premier foundation is, "top quality foundation blended from the finest British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand beeswax. "

Their standard foundation is, "beeswax blended from a variety of sources and has excellent colour and aroma. "

I've seen T*s standard foundation which was dark brown and smelled disgusting and some that was badly sized for the frames even though it was labelled appropriately - so not a mis-order by that particular beekeeper.

I've yet to see a bad batch of foundation from Peter Kemble http://www.kemble-bees.com/foundation.html

 

[Swarm]

It's definitely the best I've seen, beautiful stuff.

 

[itma]

I too have been favourably impressed with foundation from KBS.

I look forward to having a play at making my own thin (well, hopefully thin) unwired super foundation. However, I'll be buying some more 14x12wired stuff from KBS... (and maybe some super foundation, y'know, just in case.)



There was an earlier question regarding wiring and extracting 'foundationless' frames.
The extractor does make a difference.
You can extract unwired foundation frames (and I see no reason why not well-drawn foundationless ones) in a radial extractor. You may not have such luck in a tangential ...

 

[Erichalfbee]

There was an earlier question regarding wiring and extracting 'foundationless' frames.
The extractor does make a difference.
You can extract unwired foundation frames (and I see no reason why not well-drawn foundationless ones) in a radial extractor.

Slowly in a hand crank....no problem at all

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You can extract unwired foundation frames (and I see no reason why not well-drawn foundationless ones) in a radial extractor. You may not have such luck in a tangential ...

I've never had a problem - both with SN1's and Manleys with a tangential

 

[Davea]

If you want your bees to have the best let them draw their own, nothing can beat it.
S