mix of foundation and foundationless

[gov1623]

I plan on hanging a few 5 frame swarm traps with foundationless frames this year. I was wondering if it would hurt anything if i put in frames with foundation for the other five frames once i catch a swarm and put it in a hive. Would the two different size cells cause a problem. I have a lot of wax foundation and hate to not use it. 

[Kathyp]

it won't hurt, but i'd use the foundation or a couple of sheets of it in the swarm trap.  makes the transfer much easier and if you put those frames in the middle, it gives the bees a good guide for starting straight comb.  same idea with using starter strips at the top of the frames.

[jaseemtp]

What I did is have a frame or two of old comb and then two frames of foundation and one empty.  Do not forget the lemon grass oil!  I will be flooding a few areas with the bait boxes soon, cause free bees are the best bees.
Jason

[BjornBee]

I usually have starter strips in my swarm traps.

Full frames of comb, will get destroyed by wax moths, and seems to attract mice. (And if they want in, they will chew their way in.) And if the comb is old enough that I don't care about it, it's too old for bees to be on it. Why have them start on old comb especially if you don't check on the traps every day.

So I use starter strips with foundationless frames. It provides a guide, while also giving the wax smell they desire. And whatever they get filled in if I don't get to them for several days or weeks, is not lost production. I just simply move the frames over to a regular hive and they continue.

As to the original question, as long as the bees are following the pattern on the foundationless frames, I see nothing wrong with mixing. They will draw it all out eventually.

[caticind]

Mixing is no problem, and swarm traps and hiving swarms or packages are a great way to use up extra foundation.  I think most times when you are starting from scratch, as with a swarm or package, it is best to have some kind of guide so the bees draw the foundationless the way you want them to. 

It's not that they can't draw straight without foundation, but their priorities are different and sometimes they get a little creative without a guide when they are starting to build in a completely empty space.  Drawn comb is best (and helps lure too), but foundation works just fine. 

You can put in just one sheet, but if you want to use up foundation, it's no problem doing every other frame with foundation.  I'd suggest that you have at least one drawn comb or foundation frame or starter strip in the actual swarm trap though, otherwise you may have to cut loose a bunch of comb and start over when you hive the swarm.