Beeswax Foundation VS Plastic Insert Foundation//Pros & Cons of both

[@RussellSamson-d1t]

Planning on using both,and she what works best,and the bees prefer

[@thehivedoctor13]

That’s the perfect way of figuring it out! 🐝🐝

[@VeritasOmniaVinculaVincit]

After 15+ years of using wax foundations, I switched to BPA free waxed plastic foundations about 5 or so years ago and the bee's didn't seem to care. I prefer the plastic foundations now, it just makes life much simpler for me and saves me time. Great videos, I hope you keep them coming for a long time. You have an interesting story spending 10+ years working with a commercial beekeeper, no better way to learn and become an expert than from learning on the job. I bet you learned more than everyone that goes to "bee school".. I too learned as you did, my grandfather was a commercial beekeeper, growing up I just thought everyone kept bee's 😅

[@thehivedoctor13]

How cool to meet someone with a similar story and experience!! I appreciate you and your support! 🐝🐝 #plasticinserts 😅

[@beebob1279]

You're right. Bees will only draw wax when they have the need for comb. If they don't need comb they won't draw foundation no matter what you try. If wax foundation is used and the bees have no need for it, they will just chew on it and ruin it that way. Plastic can't be chewed on by the bees and is preserved during these periods. As for pesticides in your wax for using for foundation. My suggestion is to only use cappings for this and candles for the old wax. Nice job with your explanation. Especially with the comb honey information

[@thehivedoctor13]

Hey, that's a good point about the bees chewing on wax when they're not using it. Thanks Bee Bob!

[@desmondsimmons1436]

We use plastic foundation but always put a thick coat of wax on them, the bees will draw out much faster that way. We also produce comb honey in both medium and shallow boxes, what kind of frames are you using for your comb honey?.

[@thehivedoctor13]

That's great! For my comb honey I sort of invented my own special frame that would produce nice, thick frames of honeycomb. A comb super will hold about 7 of my custom frames.

[@desmondsimmons1436]

@@thehivedoctor13 those sound interesting

[@captbriansbees]

Some pesticides, especially those for Mosquitoe control are non residual and breakdown in Sunlight. Unfortunately the ones used for agriculture are residual. One plus is most used by local farms and residual have very high LD-50 rates. That means it takes a high continuous dose to do harm. I was an Aerial Applicator before becoming an Airline Pilot.

[@thehivedoctor13]

Whoa! I can tell you know what you're talking about, thank you for the info!!

[@joeelam1]

What is your hive setup? Slatted rack, etc

[@thehivedoctor13]

I used to use slatted racks when I ran deep bottom boards. Now I use a specialized screened bottom board, deep hive body + medium super as my brood nest, additional supers for the honey flow, a quilting box and a migratory cover on top.

[@willisgoodger1875]

I like using wax foundation. So much more user .... bee friendly. Plastic.... well its fast. Gonna try brushing wax on it to see i can raise the acceptance.

[@TheCoppyCat]

Just buy it already waxed. Double or triple waxed

[@thehivedoctor13]

You pretty much summed that up well! Thanks

[@gregwells7946]

Good work!

[@thehivedoctor13]

Thank you!🐝

[@quinnscheibal3215]

Question. Plastic that is pcb free is tested at room temperature. Behives are hot. This changes the molecular structure of the plastic and it can release hormone mimicking chemicals. Are the bees picking that up? Is it going through the wax? Is it in the honey.

[@thehivedoctor13]

Great question! Unfortunately I am unfamiliar with pcb. I am only aware of BPA free pkastic materials. So to answer your question…I am not sure 🤔

[@quinnscheibal3215]

@@thehivedoctor13 BPA sorry. The pcbs are something that gets released into water ways. There’s really not any BPA free plastic. Once the plastic is heated up The plastic changes and is no longer what was originally tested. Most plastic is made by big oil companies. There’s some awesome documentaries about the plastic industry

[@thehivedoctor13]

@quinnscheibal3215 I see that you know way more about plastic than I do. The only answer I can offer is that if the plastic is affecting my bees that it’s not obvious to me. Thank you for explaining pcb’s.

[@AndrewAHayes]

I too like the smell of melted bees wax, and fresh white bees wax even more! propolis also, it has a slight honey smell to it, I have lavender gardens and the lavender propolis is something else! I have used both natural drawn frames on fishing line wires and wax and plastic foundation, I prefer the plastic as it is less time consuming, I give them two coats of wax with the 4" roller and then pop them in the frame and give them a quick spray of syrup, job done

[@thehivedoctor13]

Cool! I’ve heard of people using fishing line but have never done it myself.

[@Uppey12345]

Great video keep making them you are an interesting speaker, I'm in the UK and I have never seen Comb Honey for sale in the most shops you have to look very hard for these places that sell that.

[@thehivedoctor13]

Hey thank you! I appreciate your kind words. I feel like comb honey is becoming less and less here as well and when you do find it, its quality is questionable. I like knowing about beekeeping across the sea! Thanks!

[@stanleyjones6705]

greetings doc I use plastic foundation in my hives. quick and easy. not really cheap but as I move forward I am going to use my wax to recoat my plastic foundation as it gets older and rotate out darker frames. I personally like the yellow foundation but will use whatevers on hand/available from a supplier.

[@thehivedoctor13]

Hey StanleyJones! That is an excellent strategy and I like it! Thanks for sharing man! You get the benefit of plastic, coat it with your own beeswax and rotate out old comb?! Winning!

[@lynnannandbenji]

I produce comb honey / chunk honey because I'm a top bar beekeeper. I have three top bar hives and they are all foundation less. I also have langstroth hives and I use plastic foundation in those. So I have the best of both worlds, in my opinion.

[@thehivedoctor13]

Hey, that's really cool! Top Bar Hives are perfect for producing comb honey! You do have the best of both worlds ;)

[@c.joelummus8880]

So what kind of a losses do you have in the winter? I'm wondering if putting plastic sheets between The brood and between the overwintering cluster is such a good idea. I've come to the conclusion that my brood Chambers are going to be the old fashioned wire and wax. I'm convinced tho I have not tried it, that is a major cause of winter kill. I want to not use plastic in the middle of the brood chamber where I am overwintering my bees. And yes wiring and putting the wax on is a heck of a lot of Labor but in the long run it seems like the only way to go to me. I definitely agree with you the world is a lot better place with the plastic foundation when you're going to extract

[@thehivedoctor13]

Nice, it sounds like you’ve really thought through what works best for your operation! So my over-wintering survival rate is roughly 75%. And my loss is due to a couple of things in my opinion: I didn’t get the mite loads down enough or I have queen loss too late in the season to remedy. 🐝🐝

[@LittleRiverBees-or6qp]

Could you come over and talk to my Russian bees about plastic foundations. They hate it and refuse to build comb on it. I had so much wonky comb that I gave up trying to inspect the frames as halve the comb on the frame would fall off. I put in wax foundation and they were tickled pink with it and made great comb on it. I just have to figure out a way to cycle out those plastic frames. These were wax coated frames. I even tried adding extra wax to the frames they had not got to yet and they still rejected it.

[@cherylmullenax4802]

🤤 mmmmm honeycomb! 🐝

[@thehivedoctor13]

Yeah!!

[@sentimentalbloke7586]

Although I agree with the use of wax foundations, it must be 100% bees wax and not the stuff of cheap Chinese foundation, I thought this worth a try, and the bees either rejected it completely or propalised it before building on it, It stinks when you open the package, best to either buy local or make your own. Pesticides are not the only issue, the degradation of polymers within the hive also need to be looked, the nasty chemicals released in the process at and their effect on bees and humans, these are being blamed for the reduction of fertility in humans world wide, thanks to the polymers finding their way into our food chain.