Fitting new beeswax foundation into old frames is one of those finicky jobs that can either be a real pleasure if it’s done in a relaxed way or a really stressful job if I’m trying to rush it.
With three active hives taken up on to the moor last weekend I’m short of supers to collect all that lovely heather honey my bees will hopefully be gathering. The hives were all left with one super each with a plan to return this weekend with more. I currently have two supers full of honey that I will extract this week to free them up to take with me and four more supers with empty frames that needed new foundation sheets fitting before they could be used.
Foundation is sheets of beeswax pre-pressed with the honeycomb pattern to give the bees a head start with building a home for their stores. It can be bought either with wire supports built into it or without wire if the plan is to sell cut comb honey. I had thirty sheets of wired foundation in my store cupboard and currently have another fifty sheets of unwired on order. My store cupboard therefore dictates that the first supers I will be giving the bees will be wired. If the honey flow is prolific I may take them some unwired up next week.
The bees still have to add further wax to the foundation to build it up or ‘draw’ it out. This takes the bees time, energy and resources so using drawn comb is always preferable if I have it available. The two frames I will extract the honey from this week will have just the wax caps removed for extraction leaving the rest of the drawn comb mostly intact meaning these frames will be refilled more quickly than the frames of new foundation.
After gathering everything I needed together I got myself settled on the picnic bench under the apple tree and spent a lovely couple of hours working in the company of my buddy Samson. My lovely little Parsons Terrier has not has his usual haircut this year due to lockdown and struggles to get comfortable in the heat. He restlessly kept mooching around looking for a shady spot in between periodically taking a wander over to the shed to check on some rather noisy three week old Welsummer chicks we have in there.
The job involves scraping any bits of old wax out of the grooves in the frames and removing bits of propolis the bees have stuck to the frames. The new wax should then slide into the grooves on the frames, although it sometimes needs a bit of trimming with a sharp knife to enable it to slide in without dismantling the frame. I always try to avoid taking any bits of frame apart if possible as this speeds everything up massively. A few frame repairs were made as I went along adding a tack or two if they were a little loose.
I got started with the job around 6.00pm and had everything wrapped up just around sunset. I stashed my four supers full of fresh frames in the back of the Land Rover feeling very satisfied with my evening.
