Bee's don't seem to like foundation, no honey

[rdelisio]

We've been using a plastic foundation with wax starter on the foudatin.  We just can't seem to get the bee's start putting in honey.  Any thoughts?  We also didn't put in the seperator thinking the queen might have to "bless" the foundation!  This was the same last year.

Also, a lot of the wax is a a dark burnt brrown.  Is this ok?

We're in NE Massachusetts and had a lot of rain.

Thanks
Ric

[Brian D. Bray]

I have never had good luck putting bees on plastic based foundation.  The bees will often strip the wax off of the lower half to use on the upper half and you end up with frames where only half the frames are drawn.  The other problem is that they will often resort to building burr comb instead of working the wax foundation.  Some hives will abscond rather than work the stuff.  
I've tried this experiment a number of times.  I placed 2 empty hives with foundation out in the bee yard for swarms to move into.  1 with plastic frames and the other with standard medium brood wax foundation.  The bees will go into the hive with the traditional wax foundation 1st, every time.  True not all swarms will choose a empty hive within the bee yard--but the point is that the only time I've had bees work plastic is when I've essentially forced them to.  
Some beekeepers report great success with it, but I prefer to rely on my own experience.  Those who have had success have all seemed to resort to coating the foundation with additional layer(s) of wax.

[rdelisio]

Thanks, Brian.  Other people keep telling me that there shouldn't bee :-) a problem, and I've listened to them, but I guess they forgot to tell the bee's!  I'll go back to the wax foudation.  My wife kept telling me it was the foundation; once again I should have listened to her!

[Kathyp]

i passed on the plastic because i had been warned about this problem.  i do know someone who uses the plastic.  their solution to getting the bees comfortable on it, is to spray the foundation lightly with sugar water for a couple of days after they put the super on.  i don't know if it's a good idea. it seems to work for them....i figured it was more work than it was worth.  i try to KISS, when i can.   :P

[BEE C]

I've just started beeking this year but i have both complete plastic frames and frames with plastic foundation and wooden frames.  I found burr comb on the all plastic frames, although I think that was my fault because the frames were not tight together.  Some recently started all plastic frames don't have that problem...I am switching the wooden frames into the brood chamber and keeping the all plastic for the supers as they are insurance against breakage while extracting.  When I bought my all plastic pierco frames they were already coated with wax, so I didn't notice any delay or problem in the bees filling them out.  I have heard of spraying them with sugar water as well or rubbing more wax on.  I can't believe how heavy the frames are now, so I wouldn't switch back to wooden frames myself, in fact I was curious about pierco plastic hive bodies because Its very humid here at times of the year (coastal temperate rainforest).

[Michael Bush]

I've never had them reject a foundationless frame.  :)

[amymcg]

Hi there,

I live in Andover also.  I am using regular wax foundation, everything seems to be okay.  Honey should start flowing in soon, but I think last year I waited until late August to harvest.

We lost alot of early bloom because of all the rain.

[bassman1977]

I've never had them reject a foundationless frame

This year with my feral hive which was already regressed to small cell, I have been using a foundationless brood chamber (3 mediums deep) and running pure wax small cell foundation in the supers, with excellent results.  They have, on a few occations, drawn a full box of eleven frames, in a hair less than a week.

[latebee]

I have had great success using plastic foundation with wood frames. The biggest problem encountered was parallel comb built by bees when I was careless about the spacing. Make certain the frames touch one another when installing the foundation. I have had italians,carnis,russians and swarms all placed on wax coated plastic with fantastic results,even the plastic drone comb foundation works fine for me. On the other hand if I did have problems I might be shy of plastic myself. The manufacturer recommends drizzeling sugar syrup on the foundation. Also-good foundation will not be drawn if there is no flow happening,so feeding the bees a 1 to 1 syrup helps them draw GOOD comb from foundation under less than ideal conditions. WE all have our favorite methods,in part because we go with what worked best for us. We(in our minds) try to lead the bees to do what WE think is best for them,myself included. Just have a ball,and keep bees.

[Understudy]

Rejection of plastic frames can be a problem. The way I get around it is to wash the frames in a sugar water mix with Honey B Healthy.  I have had zero problems with doing that.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[KONASDAD]

To prevent parallel combs, refer to Betterbee catalogue. In their plastic foundation section there are tips, which include spraying w/ sugar and a specific way to orient the foundation to each other. They explain it well. Once I oriented my frames that way, the bees jumped on the plastic quickly. Drawn comb on all frames in a deep w/in ten days.

[goodeva]

I have all plactic foundiation and wooden frames. I have hade no problem and would not switch back. Some hives take longer to draw out but that depends on other factors also. I rotate drawn frames up and empty frame down. Works for me.