I've been reading quite a bit about using "Foundationless" frames as a way to allow the bees to draw their comb 'naturally' with the correct size they prefer. In the past, I have made mistakes with regards to beespace and they have gone wild making their own comb and they created a huge mess for me. So, it is very important that they have a guide to get started. In this picture you can see that I simply took a small strip of surplus wax and tacked it in with some Elmers glue, using the top bar groove as a guide.
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| Standard Deep Frame |
This hive started out a month ago in a small 4 frame breeder Nuc. It was getting congested and the queen was getting busy. I wanted to provide her more room to grow and to give young bees 'something to do' in terms of wax production. The drawn and filled with the green paint you see is a foundationless one that I setup last year. I paint these to give me a clue when I open up the hive.
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| Frame of new brood |
This brood will be hatching out soon so I 'checkerboarded' it with the new frame.
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| 1st New Frame Added |
Now the new frame is snugged up with the existing one to obey 'beespace'
I repeated this for the next frame. Now there are two new foundationless frames inserted into this young colony. I will come back in a week to check on their progress. The nectar flow is still on here in town so I expect a good build up
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| 2nd New Frame is added |
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