Plastic Foundation

[mherndon]

Are you limited to extraction with plastic frames for foundation.  Has anyone every done crush and strain and been able to reuse the foundation?  Would the bees be able to reuse the foundation when you strip it of all the comb?

Mark

[ArmucheeBee]

Mike Bush has this on his site.  I use only plastic and plan to use both methods.  The bees will be able to clean the frame up after you scrap off the comb and there will be enough left over to start new comb.  If you have burr comb or messy comb, the plastic allows you to scrap that off and they can start anew.  Done that several times.

[Michael Bush]

I haven't done it but have heard from many who do.  They just scrape it off the foundation with a rubber spatula and put the frames back to be cleaned up and rebuilt.

[mherndon]

I saw the double bucket strainer in Michaels website.  I guess you just crush all the cells up as best you can then dump it on the strainer.  This probably takes longer to do?  I just have 1 hive that should produce this year, but am planning on having three hives this Fall to start up for 2010.

Mark

[DayValleyDahlias]

When I first began beekeeping,  I didn't know foundationless with starter strips was an option.  I just scraped the comb off with a firm rubber spatula, hung the frames out for the bees to clean, then cut out the plastic to reuse the frames.

I just bought s used extractor $150.  Hope it works, the guy tells me it needs TLC,  hhhhmmmmm

[Pond Creek Farm]

I use a lot of plastic frames.  (mostly Mann Lake pf-100 & 120) but also had some medium rite cell in wood frames.  When I harvested it, I just scraped it off with a spatula and put the frames back in a super and put it on the hive.  The  bees had it cleaned off the next day.  I'll put those supers back on this year.