i have these SC strips but they're kinda wide. is there a better way to cut them down other than a utility knife? they seem to be on the brittle side and crack easily.
i also have some standard cell size foundation that i would like to turn into standard cell size starter strips.
anyone know how to do this? there are wires in it so i would have to cut those too.
I use a pizza cutter to cut the foundation into strips. Don't know about the brittle part unless you have it cold.
that sounds like a good way to do it. don't tell my wife that i took the pizza wheel.
i used scissors to start the cut and then just bent and broke it. it broke straight. mine was cold because i'd had it on the back porch. i had to bring it into the house and let it warm up some.
mine is in an outbuilding and temperatures have been in the upper 40's low 50's the last few days. maybe i'll wait a few days until it gets warmer like it supposed to.
yup, pizza cutter
What are starter strips and what do you use them for?
Starter strips are used to give bees a place to start building comb.
You can read about in in tillie's blog.
http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2007/03/small-cell-foundation-starter-strips.html (http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2007/03/small-cell-foundation-starter-strips.html)
or from Michael's site.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoundationless.htm (http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoundationless.htm)
Sincerely,
Brendhan
I cut them with a rotary cutter like you use in quilting - it's a fancy pizza cutter and has the advantage of having a cutting board designed for it under the wax so the wax is less likely to break and the blade dulls less quickly.
I use a ruler as a guide and run the wheel against the ruler. There's a picture of it on the site Brendhan gave in the previous post.
Good luck -
Linda T in Atlanta
Tillie,
Very nice site. How many 3/4" inch starter strips do you place in a frame and at what intervals?
Hi Zoot,
You cut the starter strip the length of the foundation. So then you only put one 3/4 inch strip in the frame waxed to the top bar of the frame. The bees build comb (if they are behaving themselves) from the top down. The 3/4 inch strip runs the length of the top of the frame. When it is in the groove, about 1/2 inch is available to the bees.
Cutting a full sheet of foundation into 3/4 " strips means that the one sheet goes a long way....more or less depending on what size it is in the first place!
It helps (I discovered the hard way) to put a frame or two in a 10 frame box that is full of foundation....either a full sheet of foundation or drawn comb - more of a guide for the bees.
I do have one hive that is insistent on coloring outside the lines no matter how much guidance I offer them. They are doing better now but tend to rebel on several frames in every box.
Linda T in Atlanta