plasticell and more wax coating

[tlynn]

I use Dadant's wax coated plastic foundation and my bees have built out the interior frames quickly, both brood and the super I just put on last week, but they seem to be avoiding the outer couple of frames in both brood box and super.  I read about how you can melt some beeswax and paint it on the foundation and it will get them building comb a lot faster, even though it already has a wax coating on it.  Does anybody do this and does it work?  Can I move the outer blank frames inside to coax them to start building? Or does it matter right now?

BTW I did a shake test on a super frame yesterday and got a few nectar drops on the frames below, but not a whole lot.

Thanks!

[Robo]

Bees tend to not want to draw foundation on the outsides unless they really have to.  Your best bet is to just move them to the center.


rob...

[Keith13]

I have found painting the foundation helps out a bunch. at first my bees would not touch the plactic once I applied the wax they drew it out that week

Keith