Today I started an experiment with foundationless frames in my Langstroth hive. Specifically, I have installed a third deep box on my hive and intentionally left every second frame mostly empty. The only foundation that exists is a very small strip of wax foundation that I added to the top of each frame which should guide the bees into drawing out comb completely on their own.
Here’s a short video of what the frames look like now, and I will post an update in a week or two when they are drawn out.
Hey Chris,
How were you able to get the starter strips to stay in the frame? It was such a pain for me. We tried using melted wax to get it to stay, but no go for me.
I tried doing the alternate frames with whole foundation with the foundationless frames. It did not work well for me. They didn’t like getting a new box filled with completely strange smelling stuff. They avoided that box as long as possible. Anyway, I learned to take a frame from a box they were using and put it into the new box, sort of like “bait”. That made the new box smell a little more familiar.
I’ll be interested in seeing how they draw out the comb as it has been such a learning curve for me on best practices.
I didn’t do anything special to get the strips to stay. I attached them with the wooden wedges and nailed them in place. If I do more, I’ll try and make a video or take a detail photo for you.
As for getting bees to come up into new boxes, I have definitely heard of people having trouble with that. The new bees just don’t recognize the smell. I had no problem with my second box though so I have hoping for the same thing with this one. There is a technique called “pyramiding” which I believe you are referring to where you move some frames from the lower box into the new box above. I may do an article on pyramiding as there was a local woman asking about that just last week.
I’ll definitely keep you posted. I’m hoping to see some beautiful natural comb drawn in a week or two. 🙂
How’s this experiment coming along?
Hey Marc. It’s working quite well actually. I shot a video in 1080p that I have been trying to export and upload, but my computer keeps running out of memory. I should hopefully have it up on the blog in a day or two.
[…] to making this video, I installed a box on my hive where every second frame was completely empty. (See post) Other than a small wax starter strip, the frames had absolutely no foundation. In two weeks, my […]