Black foundation

Sparky · July 25, 2009, 07:47:22 PM

I'm a newbee at this craft and to posting. I was wondering if there is any advantage to using the black foundation other than the obvious reason of being able to see the eggs stand out from the dark background? Another question would be related to the black plastic is will it cause any condensation as apposed to the wood frames that may absorb it?

homer · July 25, 2009, 08:55:47 PM

The onle reason that I can see to use black is exactly what you stated. You can really see eggs and larvae quite well on black. Any moisture that wood absorbs would be so minimal that I don't think it would make any difference in the hive. But if you do like wood frames but the plastic foundation you can buy frames that way from various manufacturers.

Bee-Bop · July 25, 2009, 09:06:25 PM

Being a newbee you will soon learn that the frames will soon be covered with propolis & wax, plastic or wood they are sealed from any moisture.

Best information that can be given to some one starting out I believe is ; read some Bee Books, your public library has them or can get them thru inter-library loan, then visit/join your local bee club, find a nearby mentor !

Take any and all info. you read on inter-net forums with a grain or two of salt !

Bee-Bop

Wynoochee_newbee_guy · July 25, 2009, 11:31:36 PM

I had to use black foundation due to the fact my local dealer had a over stock and little regular foundation. so I have a black foundation and regular mixed thru my supers. my bees took to drawing out the black plastic faster then my regular foundation go figur? well maybe they like it more or they want to cover it up to get it out of sight?

Sparky · July 26, 2009, 03:29:00 PM

Thanks for the input! I have been reading books and any info that is on the net from January till now. I have not used the black but I can say that I have been very busy with trying to keep ahead of the game building frames and boxes and feeders with all of the other things on the go. I got my package going in April and I captured my first swarm after my queen that I marked was replaced after a booming build up. I can also say that bee keeping is not for the lazy person. I can see that buying black plastic could free up some time.

RayMarler · July 26, 2009, 08:44:47 PM

Just some added thoughts on plastic vs. wax foundation...

If you extract using plastic foundation, the process is less damaging to the combs and you don't have to be as careful with the spinning speed with plastic vs. wax. My experience is with a 4 frame motorized tangent extractor.

If you want to cut out queen cells to use for making increase, wax foundation is the way to go as it don't work so well with plastic foundation frames.

Black makes it much easier to see the eggs, yes.

I have all plastic foundation although it's not black. If I had it to do over again, I'd use mostly wax or natural cell wax. The bees tend to start faster and draw quicker on them than plastic, in my experience, so gives better harvest quantities in the supers. I'd also use it in the broodnest because of being able to cut out queen cells if wanted.

Recycling with natural cell is best as you can just cut out the comb leaving a row of cells around the edges and put it back in. The bees draw it right out in the spring buildup. Works well for comb honey too.

Sparky · July 26, 2009, 09:02:47 PM

Very good points Ray! I started with the wax foundations and wood frames because I wanted to gain the full experience of all the processes. The hive that the swarm come from has a supper that I put on way before the swarm and they have not touched it. I got in the hive this afternoon and found that the new queen is laying and they have nice capped brood pattern. My hope is that when the brood hatches out, the boxes will be full of bees and they will finally draw out the comb in the super.