Plastic frames

[mcgerten]

I purchased 2, 5 frame nucs in mid May. The bees came on wood frames and I added plastic frames. The queen seems to be laying I have seen eggs but mostly larvea (but I am not very good at seeing the eggs or the queen). One hive has drawn out 7 frames and the other 6 frames. I've been feeding both hives since I got them. I'm a new beekeeper and was wondering if this sounds right. It seems slow to me. I have heard that bees will sometimes be slow to draw out comb on plastic. Should I try adding more wax to the frames? If so should I melt the wax and then paint it on the frames or should I just rub it on?

[bmacior]

hi,

I feel your pain so to speak.  I'm in the exact same position you are, except I started with a package of bees.  I've been feeding because I thought that was what you were supposed to do until the honey supers went on.  Now I am honey bound, with few places for the queen to lay.  My thread is "soo disillusioned".  I'm done feeding.  Hopefully they'll eat what they have stored and open up places for the queen to lay, seeing how they are not interested in drawing out wax. 

Barb

[danno]

. Should I try adding more wax to the frames? If so should I melt the wax and then paint it on the frames or should I just rub it on?

I bought a double boiler, a few pound of wax and a small foam paint roller that I dipped right in the double boiler. 

[Hill's Hivery]

I purchased a case(72) of pierco plastic frames about a month ago.  I had previously tried just spraying the frames with syrup to promote acceptance.  After reading an article in Bee Culture about extra wax on the frames I tried it.  I am glad I did as the bees have readily accepted the frame and are drawing them out quickly.  I would recommend an extra wax coating as stated.  Melted wax and a 3" foam brush.  You will need 2 brushes though.  Just swap them when the wax buildup gets to thick.

Good luck!

[tlynn]

I saw a dramatic increase in acceptance after rolling a coat of wax on the Dadant wax coated plastic foundation.  They seem to draw out the frames uniformly, all frames, whereas before they would ignore the end frames and on some frames would even build out wax completely in the center, like an island, and ignore the rest. 

The double boiler idea works well for me.  I take a stainless dog dish and place it on top of a pan and then boil water until the wax melts.  Don't remove the dish off the pan.  Leave it on and take the whole thing to where you will roll on the wax.  Then the wax stays melted with the hot water below.  I got a 3/8" nap roller, I think 4 inch wide, at Home Depot.  Get the heaver duty metal frame.  I tried the smaller plastic one and the ends kept popping off the roller.  Also buy the unstrained cheaper wax if you can.  Bees didn't care if there was some particulates.  Get a good full roller of wax and lay it on smoothly in 1 stroke.

[ArmucheeBee]

I just received 20 MannLake PF-100 frames.  The wax coat seems pretty thick.  Anyone had experience with these?

[Bee-Bop]

Regarding the Mann-Lake PF 100 frames;

I have the Mann-Lake PF 120 frames {mediums} in 2 hives, the wax was very thin, I got some cappings, melted them down, then used a 4 in. foam roller and made one pass, sprayed with home-made HBH.

Bees immediately started building, no problems !!
YES, I did feed 1 /1 syrup !!

I'm building box's for 2 more hives, and will use more PF-120's.

Oh, one other thing, before I started, I took them out of the box, and let them air out outside for about a week, the longer the better.

You should have no problems, a lot of the complaints you hear about plastic frames were about earlier ones, they were made in India, poor plastic and workmanship, and of course first hand info. like "a friend of a friend's cousin had them and they didn't work"
Like any thing else results vary from person to person.   :roll:

Bee-Bop

Remember; take everything you read on the net with a grain of salt !

[Brian D. Bray]

Oh, one other thing, before I started, I took them out of the box, and let them air out outside for about a week, the longer the better.

Yes, the longer the better, all winter is better, then dab a coat of wax on them and you should be good to go.

You should have no problems, a lot of the complaints you hear about plastic frames were about earlier ones, they were made in India, poor plastic and workmanship, and of course first hand info. like "a friend of a friend's cousin had them and they didn't work"
Like any thing else results vary from person to person.   :roll:

Bee-Bop

True, but I've never gotten the bees to work plastic anything to my satisfaction so I stopped trying and have now gone foundationless.

Remember; take everything you read on the net with a grain of salt !

Salt definitely help the paper taste better, some pepper might help too.

[Michael Bush]

>I just received 20 MannLake PF-100 frames.  The wax coat seems pretty thick.  Anyone had experience with these?

I've been using the PF120s right out of the box with good acceptance.  The are the medium version of what you have.

[broke-t]

On my last order I had Mann Lake send me one PF-120 and one PF-520 so I could compare them.  They look the same except for the steel reinforcement in the ear of the PF-520. 

Do y'all have a problem with ears breaking off?

I have gathered 12 hives this summer by various sources.  Hope to get another 10 nucs early next spring so I am going to need a lot of frames for medium supers.

I plan on staying with wood in my brood chambers but thinking about plastic for supers. I know from reading on here the last month that opinions are divided, kind of like chocolate or vanilla, both are good but some like one over the other.

I know that wood will work and have all winter to put them together but plastic would be nice since I could just coat with extra wax and put on hive.

Hate to waste a lot of money on plastic frames if it turns out I hate them.

What's a new beek to do?

Johnny

[Michael Bush]

>On my last order I had Mann Lake send me one PF-120 and one PF-520 so I could compare them.  They look the same except for the steel reinforcement in the ear of the PF-520.

What is the cell size on the PF-520?

>Do y'all have a problem with ears breaking off?

I have not had ANY of the PF120 ears break off.  I have 2,500 of them.

[EasternShore]

CRIKEY MIKEY

2500....!!!!!!! :shock:

Would love to see your bee yard.