Preserving drawn comb

[Cole lynch]

For fear of exposing my naivety....here goes
I realise the benefits of having frames with drawn comb i.e supers ready to go in spring and drawn brood frames for splits, collecting swarms and use in bait hives.
So....
1: Is using a spinning extractor the only way of preserving the drawn comb on wired wax foundation?

2: Why do people use plastic foundation?

3: How do people end up with empty frames of drawn brood comb?

Many thanks

 

[pargyle]

For fear of exposing my naivety....here goes
I realise the benefits of having frames with drawn comb i.e supers ready to go in spring and drawn brood frames for splits, collecting swarms and use in bait hives.
So....
1: Is using a spinning extractor the only way of preserving the drawn comb on wired wax foundation?

2: Why do people use plastic foundation?

3: How do people end up with empty frames of drawn brood comb?

Many thanks

1. Yes

2. It lasts forever... and is a strong base for the comb. When you want to replace the comb you can just scrape back to the plastic and melt the remaining traces off. Bees don't seem to mind it. (Having said that - I don't use it but I know beekeepers who do).

3. Lots of reasons .. bees will always draw comb given the right conditions and it's a very valuable resource. If you have more than a couple of hives it's difficult NOT to end up with spare brood combs. Combining colonies, starting off Nucs, Swarms ... all situations that result in spare comb.

 

[Erichalfbee]

What pargyle said
Some people on standard brood use another brood as a super then spin the honey off giving them a whole box of new brood comb
Doing a rolling Demaree is a good way to get yourself new brood comb
There are occasions when you have to take food frames out of the brood nest to let the queen have room. You can either keep these in the freezer spare or spin the stores off
Drawn brood is a valuable thing and I take every opportunity to save it.