Last year, I made a decision that I would not extract from Deep frames. Based on my strategy and set-up, Deep frames would always be for my bees. From that point forth, I stopped wiring my frames. It is important to note that I still used ‘wired foundation’, so they still had some fortification. Through hundreds of expections since then, I have not had one single incident where the drawn wax in a Deep frame fell out or otherwise came ‘unglued’ from the frame.

Towards the end of last year, I stopped wiring all of my frames. I wondered (on more than one occasion) if I was making a mistake. Perhaps I should do it on only one super and test it (in a honey extraction) first? But, removing the ‘wire step’ from my frame creation process increased the throughput so much that I took the risk. I have now extracted around 120 gallons of honey and no wax has blown out of any of my unwired frames. So, for this year, it is clear to me that I do not need to wire my honey super frames either. Again, all of these frames did have ‘wired foundation’, so perhaps (I thought) this was the real key.

Towards the end of last Winter (maybe Feb or so), I began to put simple strips of wax (unwired) foundation (maybe an inch deep) in my Deep frames. The benefit most folks talk about is ‘natural comb’. Without a sheet of foundation, they build purely natural comb with no chance of any foreign substances making it into the wax from the foundation (even foundation cannot be pure – it’s from beeswax, afterall.) The benefit for me was cost – foundation can be expensive. Using these little strips reduced the cost to a fraction of  the original and was pretty quick to do. The main cost was that I would need to be extra careful with these frames during the initial draw (before the wax was drawn across the frame.) It would easily ‘plop’ out. So, I marked each one. Although I did have a ‘near miss’ when I was inspecting and not paying attention to the frames, it all ended ok. The wax turned out of the frame like a page in a book and I uttered a curse word as I corrected it quickly. The wax hung nicely and I carefully put it back into the super. In the end, I was happy. This is working out well.

Finally, I had one last test. Michael Palmer, a beekeeper I really respect in the Northeast, frequently says he actually extracts from frames that never had foundation. No wiring, no wired foundation – nothing. I was skeptical, but this was the next logical test in my experiment. I put simple, 1 inch deep, strips of wax in a handful (maybe 30) of honey super frames (all Mediums, as I am no longer really building many Shallow frames.) This last weekend, I extracted from nearly all 30 of them. Not ONE SINGLE blow out! No wire at all! It could be my extractor (I have a simple 6 frame, radial extractor that I picked up from Dadant), but it doesn’t matter to me! I probably have a couple of hundred pounds of wired foundation in my basement, but once I get through that, I am unlikely to purchase much more of it (until or unless I have a negative experience with it, of course.)

The conclusion here is that you do not always have to use wired foundation and wire your frames. I think there are some kinds of extractors that are tougher on the frames (the ones that you have to turn the frames after a spin), but my frames are placed in the extractor with the top bar on the outside and the bottom bar on the inside. I do not have to turn them. Clearly, in this kind of setup, wiring is not a good use of time.

Well, I am not a whiner. Take the bad with the good, is what I say. But, my current experience in the bee shop (translated, messy garage turned into workshop) may have had a profound effect on me.

Three weekends ago, I realized that I was short on Mediums. I use them as the top ‘hive body’ on my brood nest and for honey supers (I also use shallows for honey supers, which I was running short on, but figured I had enough for the honey.) Right now, I needed second stories to several swarms that I had caught earlier in the month.

I am mainly a Dadant customer, so I first checked them. The freight was nearly $200 for my order (and this was just to tide me over until Mother’s Day, when my wife would be in Chatham (Dadant’s Va branch) to be able to get a bigger load)! I couldn’t stomach that and even considered, multiple times, just driving down there. Finally, I ordered from Mann Lake, since they had free shipping. The merchandise was more expensive, but the total cost (Dadant included freight) was less than Dadant. I started building and painting supers.

Two weekends ago, I went out to hives that had between 1 and 3 honey supers on them, to check to see who needed more. I have already used up the meager supply of drawn wax supers, so I am in the ‘add a super of foundation’ phase, which has to take place 1 bloody super at a time. When you have several supers of drawn wax, you can literally drop them all on (I have never put on more than 2, but I know some folks that put on 3) before the flow and the bees (assuming you’ve chosen a strong hive) will happily fill all of the frames in all of the supers with honey.

On the other hand, if you dropped a bunch of supers with foundation on a hive, it would start working on the middle and probably give you a  headache at harvesting time. So, I was looking to see who could use another super. I brought 6 with me, as I didn’t feel like trucking the trailer down to Charles City and 6 is about what I could store in the Trailblazer with the inspection gear, spare Nucs and other beekeeping junk that I drag all over the world.

As of the second outyard, I was out of supers… Heh. Those gals were really pouring it on (of course, I have the laggards that will probably become Winter Nucs this Fall, but most were really putting it away.) At the time, I figured no problem! I’ll grab a few more supers from my shed tomorrow and make the rounds again. Much to my dismay, when I returned home that afternoon, I found zilch on the super front. I didn’t have a single one left. I knew I was out of Mediums, but had no idea I was out of Shallows (I need to be better organized.) So, I open the box of Medium frames from Mann Lake to get to work and suddenly realize these things are not wedge  bars!!! The wax I have won’t fit it and the wax from Mann Lake hasn’t arrived yet!

Panic mode.

Again, I think about driving to Chatham, Va. But, then I remember a posting on the Richmond Beekeepers mailing list from Tiny or Anthony Abate regarding a fellow in Mechanicsville that sold bee supplies! I called him first thing and bingo! He had what I needed. He is a dealer from Brushy Mountain. I ran up to get enough for 10 Mediums, which I was hoping would get me through Mother’s Day.

So, here is where we get to the guts of it. Mann Lake and what this guy sold were identical. A bit more expensive, but amazing woodwork. I had grown used to forcing super rabbets to  fit together and the occasional warped frame. With these new ones, not a single problem. In fact, putting the stuff together was a  piece of cake. Not one single equipment problem (2 of the super sides were damaged in shipping, but Mann Lake was resending them at  no charge!) I have over 50 hives and only the Lord knows how many Nucs. Each of the hives have at least 3 boxes (2 hive bodies and 1 super) and most have 4 or 5. I have a ton of Dadant equipment. I like the folks at Dadant. But, this Mann Lake stuff has me thinking that I may change horses. With free shipping, it makes it much easier to swallow. I haven’t officially made the switch yet, but I’m leaning that way a lot!

On a final note, I ended up getting an open bottom on my frames. I have always used a closed bottom. No reason for it. It’s just how I do my thing! But, about 50% of the time, I have to trim the wax to make it fit without buckling. These open bottoms eliminated that task completely! All in all, I have decided to make this change for sure. Wedged Top Bars with open Bottom Bars! Easy as cake.