I was told if you put only nine frames in a ten frame super it will make the bees draw the comb wider for easier decapping. I was also told you must use drawn comb and not foundation. So how do you aquire already drawn comb?
either get it from a trusted friend, or, put 10 frames in and let them draw. Once they are all drawn, pull one out and respace. Even then they may not draw it correctly. I've got one super that's beautiful and drawn evenly, and another that everyother frame was drawn out first so those are drawn further and the ones in between are barely drawn out at all.
Getting bees to draw nice straight comb is a challage under any circumstances. Putting 10 frames of foundation in improves the odds, but does not insure anything. :) Putting 9 frames in decreases the odds, but they still may or may not draw them correctly.
I put 10 frames of foundation in the super. I put 9 frames of drawn comb in a super.
I have 9 frame supers started with foundation, and had no problems to date. I did cross wire them. I had no trouble extracting, and all comb seems to be as uniform as it gets.
Chad
>I have 9 frame supers started with foundation, and had no problems to date. I did cross wire them. I had no trouble extracting, and all comb seems to be as uniform as it gets.
9 frames of foundation works sometimes. It works better with wax foundation than plastic.