BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS
Foundationless: all-round wax starter-strips
little john:
As some of you know, I'm currently investigating the possibly of using all-round starter-strips with foundationless frames - with the aim of improving side adhesion and (hopefully) encouraging adhesion to the bottom bar as well - with a long-term view towards dispensing with comb support altogether.
But - I don't have any full-sized frames needing to be drawn-out right now, and so I'm running some initial trials using much smaller mating-nuc frames.
So, this a 'before' shot:
And this is after the bees have 'done their thing':
Those combs are not completely finished yet (obviously), but already I can see that the strips are being treated as if it they were part of the woodwork itself - perhaps they're still too thick despite my best attempts to produce the thinnest strip possible, so on the next batch I'll try cutting the existing strip heights down (to reduce them to a short stub) and see if that improves acceptance.
But - so far, so good - I'm not entirely displeased with the above for a first run - but there's still plenty of room there for improvement ...
LJ
BeeMaster2:
LJ,
Looks like it is working. Why is it the top strip is very small, as is normally used and the sides and bottom are one inch wide.
How thin do you want them? Do you have a planer. My planers can make a on eighth inch thick strip. I can get it thinner by putting a board under the strip being planed. You can also get thin strips with a bandsaw. If you only have a table saw, make a gig to go under the boards being cut so that they do not drop in the slot in the table saw.
Jim
BeeMaster2:
I was going to make a bunch of them up and ship them to you. I checked how much it would cost to send a 5 pound and then a 2 pound package. As you can see below, it is outrageously high. $185 for 5 pounds and $125 for 2 pounds which would bee very few strips.
Jim
little john:
You've got good eyes, Jim ! The upper strip is a popsicle stick glued into a groove - I fitted those when I first made a bunch of those frames.
The side and bottom starters are 'cast-in-position wax starters' - (https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=51183.0) - which I added afterwards - and it's those I tried to get as thin as possible. I'd assumed/hoped that the bees would chew-off whatever of that wax offended them - but it appears that doesn't automatically happen.
A kind thought about shipping some strips across - thanks. (naughty prices ...)
I wish the bloke who I'd bought my Einheil Table Saw from had read your words: "If you only have a table saw, make a jig to go under the boards being cut so that they do not drop in the slot in the table saw." - 'cause that's exactly what must have happened to him - a thin piece fell down and entered a slot in the motor housing (bit of a design-fault there, methinks) and took out half of the motor's plastic cooling-fan blades. I only found that out when I got fed-up with the constant vibration (which was obviously being caused by the motor being out-of-balance) and decided to investigate.
'best
LJ
Acebird:
I think your are trying to fight mother nature. Just put in a top bar and let them draw it to the box. Take it out and trim the comb so you can add the end bars and bottom bar. Then they will attach the comb to the bars.
You could get scientific and measure what size shim is needed on the box sides so you don't have to waste so much comb trimming. Likewise a shim on the top of the bars below. Use a hot wire or a heated uncapping knife to trim the comb so you can keep it vertical.
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