Plastic deep frames distortion after hot wax

[BBG]

Has anybody any information on whether the distortion caused by waxing the deep Langstroth frames has been rectified

OR

is the wisdom, wood for the brood boxes and medium plastic for the supers applicable.

Experiences, thoughts, illustrations very welcome please.

Thanks in anticipation.

Must say I'm inclined to avoid trouble and expense and mayb the tried and tested wooden frames is a better bet. That way specific comb drone cells can be disposed of as mites prefer these so I am told.

Thoughts please

 

[Onge]

I've had the same problem with medium's

They also bend a lot and the open sides trap a lot of bees.

Going back to wood and mixing it up with foundation less.

 

[BBG]

I've had the same problem with medium's

They also bend a lot and the open sides trap a lot of bees.

Going back to wood and mixing it up with foundation less.

Thank you very much for that.

When you say you're:

"Going back to wood and mixing it up with foundation less."

What do you mean please

 

[Chris B]

I used plastic mediums this year. Mostly worked very well but a few did warp a bit. Some warped when waxing one side but were okay after doing the second side and cooling. I wonder if there's a bit of a knack to it?
Overall I liked them enough to get some more.

 

[Onge]

Going back to wood frames.

Some with foundation. (the use of bought foundation means the wax if full of chemical residue from where ever the wax came from).

Some foundation less. (Every 3rd frame I will insert a frame with just a guide for the bees to draw there own wax on. With the intention of going fully foundation less at sometime in the future).

Hope that helped.

 

[BBG]

Thanks to you too.

Thing is, I was going to go completely plastic as now restarting so it would be disastrous if I then found the plastic frames were a problem.

How many did you use this year and what was the % that warped and remained unusable.

 

[Onge]

I used about 60 frames this year in 3 hives.

I would say about 30% came up too warped to get it drawn properly on both sides resulting in wavy comb. Some were 50% bare on one side.

The one's that were flat were lovely. I'll try to dig out a picture.

Also you can see the gap I was talking about along the edges of the frame where they fit together. Bees get trapped in there.

 

[Chris B]

Unusable probably 1 in 100, but maybe 4 or 5 per hundred warped but returned to shape.
I guess the potential for warping is a bit more with the deeper ones?