Wired Foundation Question.

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Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
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Location
Co / Durham / Co Cleveland and Northumberland
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
17 nucs....
As i do i have ordered too many wired foundation for the brood frames and not enough for the super frames.. so what i'm currently doing is using the brood foundation in the super frames and cutting the excess off the bottom..which leaves me with enough off cut's from two brood foundation to make another super frame..

My question is.. will the join across the frame cause any problem's before i make too many..

Thankyou.

Foundation%20002_zpsmg7bj3ui.jpg
 
You will probably find them much more prone to breakage when you spin them in an extractor.

False economy in my mind.

Your brood foundation will keep til next year.
 
Well in that case why not just put another brood box on. The foundation should be fine in a shallow frame if you're not extracting it.

You will find that you have far more honey than your bees will need in a good year.
 
You will probably find them much more prone to breakage when you spin them in an extractor.
I disagree....you can spin a whole unwired brood comb if you are gentle and as far as shallow frames go...a couple of seasons and they will be much stronger, unwired or joined
 
Thank you for that Davelin.. you have me thinking now i may order some unwired foundation and mark the frames.. in-case there is ever a surplus ..that way i can leave the wired frames in there and remove the unwired frames to cut the honey out if need be.. does that sound like a good plan or a bad one.
 
I disagree....you can spin a whole unwired brood comb if you are gentle and as far as shallow frames go...a couple of seasons and they will be much stronger, unwired or joined

That's me back out in the garden then lol.. they do seem strong enough to my uneducated mind though.. my main concern was uneven drawn comb but i'm sure the bee's know what they are doing.. thank you for your input..
 
I disagree....you can spin a whole unwired brood comb if you are gentle and as far as shallow frames go...a couple of seasons and they will be much stronger, unwired or joined

I'll take your word for it, never tried extracting unwired.

I still think they will be more likely to break, and I've managed to splatter some wired ones all round the extractor.
 
Yes if you want cut comb honey order thin unwired foundation.

no, if you want cut comb honey, just use wax starter strips, what sounds better to you or customers

1, cut comb with a thin sheet of man made foundation running through the center

2, cut comb 100% made by the bees,

I know what me and my customers prefer

https://youtu.be/0loIRY0rDsM
 
For cut comb, better to use thin unwired foundation. Its clean beeswax that has been rolled by machine, its not really accurate to call it "man made".
Using the foundation should give straighter, more even combs. Important for getting consistent weights of your cut comb packs.

But use starter strips if you like ...
Which brings me to what I was about to post.
If you can't align the two parts to make the pattern join up, I'd suggest leaving out the lower part. So you have in effect a large, wired, starter strip.

Regarding extraction, much may depend on the extractor. I've extracted frames started on thin unwired in my radial extractor, without a problem. Using a tangential, I'd suggest would need great care not to go too hard, too soon, and possibly turn the frames a couple of times.
 
Thank you all .. i have ended up with more information than i needed for my little experiment and i'm grateful for it.. i may have mentioned in other posts that i'm not interested in the honey.. my main aim is to keep the Bee population alive and strong.. if i get a bit of surplus to requirement's then so be it my friend's will be happy .. i love ant's / bee's and other super organism's they intrigue me .. so any help i get form here is invaluable..
 
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Is that medium frame or... But frame is over wired. 2 horizontal wires is enough.
 
Yes if you want cut comb honey order thin unwired foundation.

Would that be cut comb in honey?
OR if sold as a complete frame cut comb in the frame???
..... subject of another thread on the new honey regs!!!

As long as the bees give you a surplus that is..... enjoy!

Yeghes da
 
no, if you want cut comb honey, just use wax starter strips, what sounds better to you or customers

1, cut comb with a thin sheet of man made foundation running through the center

2, cut comb 100% made by the bees,

I know what me and my customers prefer

https://youtu.be/0loIRY0rDsM


You and me both, Brother Shed. Big slab of foundation (even "thin") full of wax a la Coumaphos from who knows what or where. Bleh.
 
Is that medium frame or... But frame is over wired. 2 horizontal wires is enough.

If you're referring to the picture in OP - that's how foundation is wired in this country!
 
I'm trying for cut comb this year - I've gone for alternating full sheets of thin with small starter strips as I'd read somewhere that it helps them draw it straight. I'll take a photo if I remember to to show their progress. When I last looked, they were just starting to draw it out and had hardly touched the full sheets, while they were making good progress on many of the strips - though one had a curvy bit about to join the adjacent sheet which I took off. Luckily it went to a good use as a friend of mine was looking for samples of wax and other hive products for some research she's doing into the antibacterial properties of hive products (she's looking for samples of honey, wax, propolis or royal jelly from as many apiaries as she can if anyone is interested), so I was able to give her a block of rendered wax as well as some very freshly drawn comb to try. She was telling me that they are having a really hard time trying to get the bacteria to grow on any of the samples they've tried so far.
 
I She was telling me that they are having a really hard time trying to get the bacteria to grow on any of the samples they've tried so far.


so, that's why they used honey to dress wounds in the war then, do you think ??
 
so, that's why they used honey to dress wounds in the war then, do you think ??

That's pretty much what the research is all about. I don't want to hijack the thread with the full details but basically looking at fighting food-bourne diseases, particularly in the 'post-antibiotic era' that the World Health Organisation have warned of.
 

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