7/11 Foundation question

[Gerald in Ga]

 Howdy All,
  I read in another post that the queen does not like laying in Kelly's 7/11 foundation. If this is so, could this foundation be used right above the brood boxes instead of an excluder to prevent the queen from moving up into the honey supers to lay?  Thank you.

[Michael Bush]

That is what it is made for, but it won't act as an excluder if they can't get drone in the brood nest, they will build it wherever and the queen will find it wherever.  Sometime try putting some drone foundation in a super with no drone comb in the brood chamber and you'll find out.  :)  But the queen doesn't like to lay in it.

[Gerald in Ga]

Thank you Mr. Bush.
  So, would putting some of the larger cell wired wax foundation in the brood box serve as drone foundation if you are using 4.9 cell also? Or maybe using wax strips?

[Michael Bush]

>So, would putting some of the larger cell wired wax foundation in the brood box serve as drone foundation if you are using 4.9 cell also? Or maybe using wax strips?'

Large cell foundation will not be large enough.  7/11 is starting to get close, but 6.0mm or above is about the bottom end of natural sized drone cells, while 7.0mm is near the top.  An empty comb between two drawn brood combs will usually result in a frame with drone comb in it.  This can be put on the sides afterwards.  Dee Lusby, the small cell pioneer, leaves about a 3/4" gap at the bottom of all the foundations so they can build drone there.  I've done similar by cutting full sheets of 4.9mm deep in half an putting it in mediums:
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/Foundation49.jpg

[Gerald in Ga]

Thank you again Mr. Bush,
  I will give the short foundation a try.

[bryanaw40]

Gerald,
I used the 7/11 foundation in all my honey supers last season and the found no brood (drone or other) in the comb when it came time to extract and I don't use a queen excluder.  Really worked great.  I use small cell (4.9mm) in the brood boxes so there is quite a difference.

This was one of the many MB suggestions I found to work great.

Bryan
Ortonville, MI

[Gerald in Ga]

Howdy Bryan,
  I'm going to give Mr. Bush's suggestions a try and see what happens.

[Michael Bush]

Another option, that I have not personally tried, so I can't say how well I like it, is by Honey Super Cell.  They have medium frames that are 6.0mm with a fake egg in the bottom, that supposedly fools the queen into thinking it's already been layed in so she won't lay in them.