Myth or magic?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A little story first.
When the first got married my parents rented a house on a quiet road on the outskirts of the village, after they moved to run my father's parents shop, my mother's parents rented the place for years. My future stepfather lived next door, there was a nurseries/market garden just a hundred yards away and we were all a little community helping each other over the years, I was always going over the nurseries to play with their children. Brian, the Nurseries' owner also kept bees, so between gardening and beekeeping, he and my grandfather got along famously.
Move on a few decades and in (about) 2009 Brian - now retired gave up beekeeping. The greenhouses were taken down and nothing has been done there apart from Brian building a few bungalows on the land.
Brian died a few years ago and Brenda, his widow died during the pandemic. The family (two brothers - Huw is a couple of years older than me and three sisters are sorting the estate. Arwyn, the eldest brother phoned me one day, he was home clearing away everything before the nurseries was all sold, and he had found some beekeeping kit in the carthouse, did I want to grab anything handy before he went to the tip.
Basically I've ended up with a brand new Thornes cedar brood box and a stack of wired foundation which was bought from Thornes about twenty years ago and has been sat, in opened packets in the carthouse ever since.
A few weeks ago whilst sorting frames out ready for the silly season I remembered Brian's foundation.
We all know how everyone gets their knickers in a twist about 'stale' foundation and all the magic tricks recommended to make it 'acceptable' again, so I thought I'd put the myth to the test. I put all the usable foundation (It's pretty brittle and some had disintegrated) into new frames, marked the frames and put them in the ready use rack - no faffing around with hairdryers, chanting magic spells, tucking them in my armpits to warm them etc.etc.
Today I was checking the top box of a Demarree I conducted last Sunday and there is some of Brian's foundation in both boxes, and................
The bees have draw all the frames out perfectly - in record time actually as they are usually a lot slower!!
Not very scientific I must admit, but it does prove that a lot of problems encountered in beekeeping are not in the hive - but in the beekeeper's mind.

 

[Sutty]

As I had a 20yr gap in my beekeeping I also had the opportunity to use some 20yr+ old foundation, it had a bit of a "bloom" on it and was more brittle.
The bees used it happily with no problems.

 

[blackcloud]

I inherited my steel and brodie national from a relative who threw it into the corner of a field 30years ago
There was comb in there which possibly could have been used but I was scaremongered into burning it.

 

[Antipodes]

These guys say the life of their wax foundation is indefinite if stored dry and in the original packaging. They use the "Weed" process.

https://beeswax.co.nz/beeswax-comb-foundation/
As an active hive interior is warm, it doesn't make sense to heat the foundation up before putting it in the hive to make it acceptable, as it will soon warm up. Sometimes however, wiring and transporting really brittle foundation can be perhaps a little more tricky. I remember Finny saying that he brings foundation into a warm room.