Plastic acceptance

danno · February 28, 2008, 09:21:04 AM

Last night I read the article in ABJ about this topic. 2 local beeks had told me to stick with plastic for my 5-3lb packs this spring. One said he tried and really liked black so I bought wood w/ black pasticell. Another local told me he would sell me some drawn out frames to get me started. I had planned on 50-50 plastic and drawn. After reading this article I'm confussed. The author stated not to mix them and to rewax them before trying them.

CBEE · February 28, 2008, 09:46:53 AM

Hey Danno, You will find some things are personnal preference. Some people like plastic and some don't. Things that work well for one person may or may not work for you. It seems it works the same with bees. Some bees take right to plastic and some don't. You may need to dip them or spray them with syrup to encourage the bees to work them. That being said you will get some better info than mine so just hang loose.
Are you asking if you should not mix the black ones with the white ones ?

danno · February 28, 2008, 09:52:45 AM

Thanks CBEE
I had planned on half drawn and half black plastic. I planned on buying 50 drawn frames and have 50 waxed black plastic.

Keith13 · February 28, 2008, 09:53:06 AM

i am new to beekeeping, and was wondering the same thing i have read bees don't really take to plastic and i have bought nothing but plastic so far and am waiting to get my bees in a month so i'm sorta stuck with it now

DennisB · February 28, 2008, 10:05:35 AM

Hey Keith13, you'll do ok with what you have. Make sure your plastic frames have a coating of beeswax on them and feed them with sugar water to help build up and draw the comb. I am agreeing with CBEE on this that some bees will like it and some won't but work with what you have and things will do fine. What I am finding is that if you feed them syrup and a pollen patty and the queen wants to start laying and there is a bloom on they will start drawing out comb on anything that will work for them. Good Luck

DennisB

Scadsobees · February 28, 2008, 10:33:04 AM

DON'T mix the drawn frames and undrawn plastic frames in one box. Once the plastic is drawn out, then all is equal.

Start the packages out on the DRAWN comb, and then when that is full put the plastic frames. I think this would give them the best start, and you would need to add the plastic frames about the time of the honeyflow so they would draw it out fine.

OR

Start them out on only the plastic, then when that is drawn out you can add the drawn.

If you give them drawn comb and also plastic foundation in one box, they will generally use only the drawn comb until they really need more room. If it is used for honey storage, they will draw out the drawn comb way way out and basically ignore the plastic. So you will end up with interlocking frames. :roll:

You can rub wax on the plastic if you want. It should already be waxed if you bought it that way, some think it helps to rub wax on it, but they will do fine if you don't.

Rick

catfishbill · February 28, 2008, 05:52:34 PM

hello ya'll, i'm new also.i started with wired wax with the long hooks in the brood boxes and ordered waxed plasticell for the supers.everyone i have talked to says this will work,i hope so

wtiger · February 28, 2008, 06:46:08 PM

Not a big fan of the waxed plastic foundation. I even sprayed it with sugar syrup with honeybee healthy. My bees just didn't take to it very well so I just started rotating it out with foundation less frames. They were very happy and started quickly drawing out comb.

Joseph Clemens · February 28, 2008, 08:10:42 PM

Last season (2006-2007) I purchased several hundred Mann Lake, PF-120 combination plastic frame/foundations. I placed many of them between frames of brood and in honey supers between frames of honey. Most were drawn out fine in the brood nest, but in the honey supers too many were ignored and adjacent combs were expanded into the space provided by the PF-120 making it quite difficult to manipulate those frames.

This season (2007-2008) I have already begun to have the bees draw more of these plastic frames. Taking advice from several sources I first thickened the cell wall bases with extra beeswax painted on with a small paint brush. Then I began inserting them between frames of emerging brood. Most were drawn into comb in about 24 hours and are now frames of brood.

danno · February 29, 2008, 09:35:45 AM

If I was to start my five new packages on souly waxed, black plastic. At what point will I know if it is working or not

Joseph Clemens · February 29, 2008, 10:09:44 AM

You can peek in the top by the next morning, you should be able to see white wax comb built up where most of the bees are clustered.

Brian D. Bray · February 29, 2008, 03:56:37 PM

Quote from: danno on February 29, 2008, 09:35:45 AM
If I was to start my five new packages on souly waxed, black plastic. At what point will I know if it is working or not

You can make it work if you do all of the following things:
1. Air out the plastic sheets as soon as possible and at least 2 weeks before using in the hive. The odors from the plastic needs to have time to disapte.
2. Apply a thin layer of wax over the foundation--the manufactures only apply 1/2 enough as needed (reduces manufacturing costs).
3. Spray each sheet with simple syrup when placing in the hive. This will get the bees onto the plastic and they will start drawing comb from the additional wax applied earlier.
4. Install plastic only during times of heavy honey flow or feed heavily until drawn. Move the outer frames inside or the outer side of the outer most frames will never get drawn out.
5. Always use at least 10 frames in a 10 frame box or you will get a mess of major purportions.
6. Don't mix plastic with wood until after all the frames are fully drawn. The bees will draw the wood frames and ignore the plastic and create a mess of a different kind.
7. If possible place a full super of honey above a super containing plastic as it will help drawn the bees onto it--they have to pass over an empty space and instinct makes them fill the space. See number 4 and 5.
8. Never use a queen excluder when using plastic until all the previous conditions have been met. Bees won't go through an excluder to work plastic--it's hard enough to get them to go through an excluder to work wood and wax.

With that said, I still prefer wood and wax although I have 10 frames of deep plastic frames from Mann Lake that were given to me. I'm currently using 5 as a base on one of my queen holder nucs. I continue to have problems with the bees on plastic, they will draw burr and bridge comb on it even when the frames are pressed together, any gap and they go wild with the bridge comb.

Cindi · March 01, 2008, 11:22:51 AM

Brian, excellent. I have mounds of plastic frames that I will be utilizing this year. I bought so many two years ago and haven't had the chance to use them all yet, but this will be the year. Yes, I have had major issues with the bees accepting plastic frames, even the plastic frames that my Husband had cut the foundation out of, leaving a little bit on the top bar, like the starter strips, but I have renewed faith that the bees will accept them this year. There has been alot of information in our forum about how to get bees to accept plastic frames/foundation, compiling all of it in my mind's eye, I will be successful. Have a wonderful and beautiful day, lovin' this groovy life we live. Cindi