How would I change a hive that is already on drawn plasticell to foundationless?
Start swapping out frames in between the drawn Plasticel frames...I did some of that on one of my hives today. You can also cut out the centers, or the bottom 3/4 of the frames you remove, and put them back in to be drawn out by bees. I haven't tried that, but there is a good discussion of the various methods on Michael Bush's site.
Feed empty frames between two brood combs. Pull empty frames and frames of honey out of the brood nest as you go. If there is a flow of pollen and honey, you can pull them. This is also great swarm control...
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm#whatisregression (http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm#whatisregression)
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoundationless.htm (http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoundationless.htm)
Thanks again, I think I will use the old comb once it is cleaned for swarm boxes and begin transitioning to all natural, One reason though not a great one for the bee's but last year when I caught my first swarm I was amazed that after two days in a cardboard box they had three large pieces of comb in the box already! It was the whitest and coolest looking comb I have ever seen. Now when I look at the draw comb on the plasticell I don't see the same thing. To manmade looking maybe. Don't know but want to try what the bee's do on there own.