using old foundation

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jillwye

New Bee
Joined
May 11, 2011
Messages
4
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0
Location
St Davids, Pembrokeshire,Wales
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
2-3
Can anyone help me- as a fairly new beekeeper- I have been given some old unused foundation(quite a lot)-probably about 10-15 yrs old.Its all clean, but most has gone brittle, and some is falling apart. If I put it in the airing cupboard will this help- is it worth using? and is there anyway of using the broken pieces.Thanks
 
The wire has probably gone rusty over the years and blown the wax off, melt it down and get new for the weight, if its super foundation do you want honey with black streaks in it from the rust
 
Cast wax seems to go brittle much more quickly than rolled. As the others say, start with fresh wax - unless it has been wired with stainless and is able to be recovered with a little localised heat.

The bees will recover the foundation sheet, if not too bad, but are likely to build drone comb in 'missing' corners.

If you do decide to repair any, warm it first.

Regards, RAB
 
Use the sheets that are serviceable, recycle the ones that arent. Whatever heat treating you want to do to it is fairly irrelevant as the bees heat it before working it.
 
As Rab says, if it it's non ferrous wired it might still be serviceable, either by warming alone and smearing with syrup or even by redoing the immersion of the wires into the wax with a quick 12v short circuit procedure. The bees will tidy up the cell structure after.
 
Thanks everybody- I can't see any rust-more a sort of corrosion? think I will do as seems to be general consensus and pick out the usable sheets and put in the airing cupboard before I put them into frames and recycle the rest. Thanks again
 
You could try warming any pieces that you can put into your frames which remain intact.

Simply use a hot hair dryer run across the foundation, which should change colour and release a new wax smell.

Bees are not keen on old wax which often does not retain any fragrance.

When times are tough never look a gift horse in the mouth.
 

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