How to convert wax block to usable foundation

[joelsoo]

hey all, just resurrecting an old thread above...

from what i read, if we make our own foundation sheets SMOOTH, the bees still draw it out like one that had been embossed, have anyone tried it? if so, i think i'd give it a go and make flat sheets of wax like on this video below at 2min25s, and start using smooth sheets from next season on?

only thought is they might make more drone cells than worker cells.

 

[Erichalfbee]

only thought is they might make more drone cells than worker cells.

Like they do in their own drawn comb?
Bees like drones and if you run FF you can expect around 20%

 

[user 819]

They will make drone cells yes and one will also notice that when needed they will also rework some cells to worker size esp if back filling with stores.
Work with the bees a little more let them decide which cells to make.

 

[Curly green finger's]

hey all, just resurrecting an old thread above...

from what i read, if we make our own foundation sheets SMOOTH, the bees still draw it out like one that had been embossed, have anyone tried it? if so, i think i'd give it a go and make flat sheets of wax like on this video below at 2min25s, and start using smooth sheets from next season on?

Thanks for sharing, I plan to have ago at making foundation, my mentor said get the mold from thornes or maisemore.

 

[pargyle]

Thanks for sharing, I plan to have ago at making foundation, my mentor said get the mold from thornes or maisemore.

I've bought one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beeswax-...193266?hash=item28a0023db2:g:4xIAAOSwv~pep-AA
I haven't used it yet but it's a really nicely made bit of kit for what it cost. It came from Russia and took a few weeks to arrive. Looks as though it will do the job. I bought the Langstroth size as that will be big enough for any UK foundation.

I've always been foundationless and in honesty I will probably remain so but this year was such a good one that I ran out of drawn super frames. The only problem with being foundationless in the supers is that they draw comb so fast that they really need a guide to keep the comb straight. I was checkerboarding supers with capped frames as I didn't really want to extract supers at that stage but it would have been useful to have a some frames with foundation to act as guides.

I now have a lot of wax accumulated and I figured, as my bees had produced it, that it meets my principles to give them some of it back as home produced foundation. As I said - this looks like it will do the job and for what it cost compared to Thornes £415 if it doesn't then I'm not going to cry about it. Came in at £128 when the conversion from $US hit my account - including carriage - there was no VAT applied as it didn't get picked up by customs.

They also sell just the silicon sheets but for what they cost and the hassle of making a device to fit it into I reckoned it was not worth the effort. I'm not intending using it until I've got some means of containing the inevitable mess but I'll report back when I get round to it.

 

[understanding_bees]

Hello all
Has any one converted a block of wax into usable foundation by some process at home. If so what system works best? How do you do it? To clarify I am not asking what commercial producers will trade wax for foundation.

Secondly, has any one produced a sheet of smooth wax foundation without any cells embossed on it and how did the bees take to it? If it was successful and the bees accepted a smooth sheet as a foundation for a comb then it would negate the need for for such a press/embossing machine.

I hope some one out there has a system that works.
Thanks in advance
Jim

I am able to help you. My experience, has been very successful.. Please write to me via private messaging, as I am reluctant to share information with those who seem to have pleasure in ridiculing anything that may be different to their own experience.

 

[gmonag]

Sad but true

 

[pargyle]

Sad but true

I don't think it's true ... I wonder where some people get the perception this forum is unpleasant in any way ... there are moments of humour but not ridicule.

My view, rather than hide your different ways but say you have them, in the public forum - just PM the member and keep it to yourself rather than making some snide point about how you feel. If it's that bad and you can't stand the comments or the humour there is always the alternative of not participating.

It's been a fairly interesting - and occasionally confrontational ride over the years and there have been times when things have got a little fractious but not recently ... there are forums which are a lot worse and some that are so restrictive and prescriptive that they become as dull as dishwater. At least here there is the chance to learn ....

 

[gmonag]

... I wonder where some people get the perception this forum is unpleasant in any way ...

Experience Phillip, experience. This a forum, a medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged. It is not necessarily a place where posters want or need "educating" (unless in the beginners section). Everyone deserves the right to be heard politely. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing or refuting an argument with evidence to give weight, but that courtesy is not always given. I love a good debate, but I cannot stand bullying, arrogance or dogma.

 

[pargyle]

Experience Phillip, experience. This a forum, a medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged. It is not necessarily a place where posters want or need "educating" (unless in the beginners section). Everyone deserves the right to be heard politely. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing or refuting an argument with evidence to give weight, but that courtesy is not always given. I love a good debate, but I cannot stand bullying, arrogance or dogma.

I don't see any forced 'education'... bullying or arrogance ... there's occasionally some dogma but I can't say that it interferes with the general ebb and flow of the debate.

Like everything in life - if you look closely enough at something you can always find fault with minutiae - sometimes it's better to stand back and look at the bigger picture where you get a true perspective.

 

[Michael ECB's]

hey all, just resurrecting an old thread above...

from what i read, if we make our own foundation sheets SMOOTH, the bees still draw it out like one that had been embossed, have anyone tried it? if so, i think i'd give it a go and make flat sheets of wax like on this video below at 2min25s, and start using smooth sheets from next season on?

Thank you for sharing this.....
Very helpful and I am most certainly going to do this....
If the bees make more drone cells, so be it!
I have already learnt that the bees know far more than I do...
Leave them to do what they do....

 

[Ian123]

Am sure there’s an old northern bee book diy pamphlet on a foundation press. Probably worth changing out the old fibre glass moulds for silicon ones. For the beek with a couple of hives and time to kill biggest issue may be accumulating the wax.

 

[gmonag]

hey all, just resurrecting an old thread above...

from what i read, if we make our own foundation sheets SMOOTH, the bees still draw it out like one that had been embossed, have anyone tried it? if so, i think i'd give it a go and make flat sheets of wax like on this video below at 2min25s, and start using smooth sheets from next season on?

That is Tim Rowe in the video, inventor of the Rose Hive Method.
One of the tenets of the Method is that the bees can make whatever comb they like and they will make more drone than conventional beekeepers are used to. I can see why that would be a problem in a conventional hive, because you end up with "too much" drone comb in the brood box. However, using the Rose HIve Method the drone comb works up and out of the hive as it is used for honey storage after drone brooding is finished.

I prefer to let the bees draw natural comb, from starter strips of foundation . However they are then prone to draw cross comb, so I use full sheets of foundation (if I don't have any drawn frames) interspersed between the foundationless frames.

I haven't tried making smooth sheets as in the video but it does seem to work. However I think it may need to wired, to prevent sagging in brood frames due to the high temperature in the brood nest.

 

[Michael ECB's]

However, using the Rose HIve Method the drone comb works up and out of the hive as it is used for honey storage after drone brooding is finished.

For us using Langstroth brood boxes as supers we are always moving the tougher brood frames up into supers anyway...
Large drone comb? let it age a bit and move up into supers...
No Queen excluder used either,,, so really a fast and painless job of frame rotation...
Let the bees get on with it.... My feelings anyway..

 

[Apple]

Ignore the remarks from the nere do wells.

I have tried plain beeswax sheets in frames and it seemed generally the bees tore it down but then reused it, making the cell size they wanted... and a lot more drone.
Have also use plain wax in Keiler mating nucs... much the same the bees munched it up and then used it.
I usually just put a strip on the wooden frames.
Perhaps an experiment for next season
a dozen with plain strip, a dozen with embossed strip a dozen with full frame plain and finally a dozen with full frame embossed.

Shirley if you give bees wax in any form it must save them some time and energy?

Chons da

 

[Michael ECB's]

Shirley if you give bees wax in any form it must save them some time and energy?
Chons da

Look forward to hearing results of all the other trials....
Unfortunately, my book keeping regarding the Bees is so bad doubt I would even find the same colony again...
Aaaagh, going to have some fun making them anyway - Win Win !

 

[Apple]

Look forward to hearing results of all the other trials....
Unfortunately, my book keeping regarding the Bees is so bad doubt I would even find the same colony again...
Aaaagh, going to have some fun making them anyway - Win Win !

You have to paint numbers on the hives.... not the roofs!!

Good luck and have a good season down under!... well south of the Equator..
Which way does your loo water run away.. clock or anticlock??

Yeghes da

 

[Michael ECB's]

Which way does your loo water run away.. clock or anticlock??

Wait! What? You have running water up north?
Aaaand your toilets FLUSH ?

Geeeez,,,,, one day when I'm big I'm going to visit your Island...... (Let me know what month the sun is expected to shine please)

P.s. I saw the debate on the drain water and the boiling point and the dog poo and the open field swarming and the pure honey / infused and the and the and the ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I get to eat so much popcorn here..... about to cancel my Netflix...

 

[pargyle]

Wait! What? You have running water up north?
Aaaand your toilets FLUSH ?

Geeeez,,,,, one day when I'm big I'm going to visit your Island...... (Let me know what month the sun is expected to shine please)

P.s. I saw the debate on the drain water and the boiling point and the dog poo and the open field swarming and the pure honey / infused and the and the and the ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I get to eat so much popcorn here..... about to cancel my Netflix...

Ya-see ... you'll fit right in over here ... down here on the Costa del Fareham we get sun at least three or four days a year... sometimes the daytime temperature reaches 19 degrees ...and guess what .... there are NO FLIES !

 

[elainemary]

Made something similar but for wax wraps. Mixed beeswax, pine resin & jojoba oil; floated it off wood (see pics), froze it then broke it up into fragments to sprinkle onto wraps. Beats grating! Like the idea of making foundation, thanks for sharing the video