Making Foundation

[Beeboy01]

Update, I made a full box of shallow foundation using the pour and press method and installed it in on of my bigger, more active hives last week. Doesn't seem to have a flow going on right now but the Cabbage palms have started which I hope will stimulate the bees into drawing out the flat sheets of wax. I'm interested in seeing if the hive will reject or use the flat foundation. If this batch works I'll switch over to wiring the frames instead of using fishing line which has a lot of stretch.
  Home made flat foundation might only be useful as starter strips. Only time will tell, you can't rush the bees into doing something they don't want to do.

[Beeboy01]

So far the bees haven't drawn out the home made foundation even during a honey flow. They have built a few small patches of comb along the top and bottom bars but have left the centers alone. I am wondering if the bees can't pull out the wax because it has a smooth flat surface. To check that idea I scraped zig zag lines in the wax using a hive tool to give them something to get a hold of. Going to see if there is any change during my next weekly inspection.

[Michael Bush]

If you make plain sheets of wax by dipping it slows the bees down.  Just give them foundationless frames.  If you have a press it might work because when you work the wax it gets softer and more workable.  When it's cast on the board it's hard and tough and difficult for the bees to work it.

[Ben Framed]

If you make plain sheets of wax by dipping it slows the bees down.  Just give them foundationless frames.  If you have a press it might work because when you work the wax it gets softer and more workable.  When it's cast on the board it's hard and tough and difficult for the bees to work it.

What Tim Rowe, the inventor of the Rose Hive does about the hardened plain wax sheets, Tim goes over them with a rolling pen as used in making biscuits. The sheet will Soften up pronto
and remain so making it easy for bees to work.