Frames and Foundation -- Wood or Plastic

[hrtull]

 Most of of my frames have been without foundation and I am wanting to convert to foundations. I have been reading for hours about wood versus plastic.  By that I mean wood frames with wax coated foundation versus an all plastic one piece frame with wax coated foundation. The Pierco frames got my attention.  There seems to be so many opinions regarding wood and plastic. Some state plastic is perfect and as many will also state they are not. Same remarks concerning wood.  Would like some advice or opinions concerning this, Thanks HRTULL

[Groundhawg]

We seemed to have had a greater problem with SHBs when using plastic frames.  Do not use them now because of this.

[ed/La.]

I don't think it matters that much. Use a few of each and see what you like.

[cao]

I started out using wood frames with wax foundation.  It works like it should most of the time.  One issue with it is the bees will eat holes in it when they need a little wax before they start drawing wax in the spring.  Also, there is the wiring of the frames.  I have tried the plastic foundation with wood frames.  I have found that they work really well as long as you add extra wax to the plastic.  I have not used the one piece plastic frames.  To me they have way too many hiding places for SHB.  What I am doing now with most of my frames is using starter strips.  Either wood strips or some of the plastic foundation cut in strips and dipped in wax.  I guess I am heading to where you started with foundationless.

[Bushpilot]

I have tried wood frames with wax coated plastic, and plastic frames with wax coating. I don't have SHB problems, but I can see how the plastic frames could be a problem with them. But I still prefer the wood frames, because the plastic ones warped on me.

So, my current favorite is wood frames with black plastic foundation (it helps with seeing eggs better), wax coated.

[BeeMaster2]

I have used almost all types of frames. The ones that I like the least are the Pierco.  If the wax is removed from the plastic, the bees will not build on it and bees are constantly moving wax around and they end up with big holes in them. I have thousands of wood frames with plastic foundation. I like them for honey supers. They are great for that. When they get stripped of the wax of by the wax moths I melt wax and repaint them. If I have a lot to fix, I dip them in melted wax.
For the brood chamber I like foundation less using a waxed wood strip in the top slot. I have plastic foundation and frames. During Beefest this year, I put them all in a bag marked free. Nobody wanted them. If you do try them, take some hot glue and seal in the slots in the frames. It takes a lot of glue and quite a while to do. I did one of them. Not worth the time it takes to make them worth keeping.
Jim Altmiller

[yes2matt]

I installed a friend's nuc drawn on Pierco plastic frames. The bees seemed happy with them. I thought they would be flimsy but they felt sturdy. They aren't solid plastic, the frame part is like H-  or I-  beam. So there's lots of little cavities which I would imagine would become all propolis and SHB hideouts. This was a young nuc, amd I can't say what the frames will be like in the future.  I was one of the ones who walked right by the "free" box at BeeFest. :)

[2Sox]

I did foundationless for years and crush and strain.  If you have more than a few hives (and if you are getting up in years), it's just to much work. And only a tangential extractor will work for these.  I've seen some videos of guys who run fishing tackle through these but I don't know if they would stand up in a radial extractor.

I purchased a 12 frame Lyson radial and I like it very much (comes with inserts for two frames tangentially if you do desire).  And I started converting to wood with foundation in the brood boxes and wood with plastic for honey supers.  I insert a few foundationless in there too for comb honey. I tried a few all plastic and they are okay, but the wood with plastic are sturdier and I'm sticking with them.