mixing wax and plastic foundation

[cindyf]

I've read that you shouldn't mix wax and plastic foundation in the same hive because they will go for the wax and leave the plastic alone. I used plastic foundation in my hive and so far they have drawn out one hive body and half of another. When I go to add a Honey super on, Would it hurt to put a couple of frames in with wax foundation and then replace them with plastic after they are full? I would like just a frame or two of comb honey for myself but didn't want a whole bunch. Would they go back to accepting the plastic foundation after the comb frames were removed?

[Michael Bush]

>I've read that you shouldn't mix wax and plastic foundation in the same hive because they will go for the wax and leave the plastic alone.

If you are talking about foundation, yes.  If you're talking about drawn comb, it's irelevant.

> I used plastic foundation in my hive and so far they have drawn out one hive body and half of another. When I go to add a Honey super on, Would it hurt to put a couple of frames in with wax foundation and then replace them with plastic after they are full?

Not at all.

> I would like just a frame or two of comb honey for myself but didn't want a whole bunch. Would they go back to accepting the plastic foundation after the comb frames were removed?

Just pretend you are feeding brocolli (plastic) to a child (the bees) and the wax is cherry pie.  Don't put the cherry pie in front of the child and expect them to eat the brocolli.

[cindyf]

I'M thinking if they get a taste for brocolli they won't like cherry pie. I tried putting a couple frames with wax foundation in. They are building comb like crazy on the plastic. They have chewed great big holes out of the wax foundation to  the point one foundation even collapsed but they are not drawing comb out on it.

[bassman1977]

I have both wax and plastic in one of my hives.  No problems.  Just make sure the plastic has a nice wax coat on it.  They do seem to go for the wax before they go for the plastic, but once the wax foundations were filled up, moved right on to the plastic.