Making Foundation-less Frames

I like using "foundationless" frames in my brood chambers.  However, it does require a bit of planning and time to setup.  Placing one of these 'sandwiched' between two drawn frames is the best way getting these drawn correctly.  Otherwise, the bees will go 'freestyle' on ya and make a big mess.
Each frame has a 1 inch 'starter strip' of wax foundation - to help get them started.

Gently stacked and drying

I mark these with the 'queen' color for 2019

The other advantage is that they work better for queen cell harvesting in a cell builder hive. The plasticell will not work very well for cell cutting.  I've done it over the years with average success.  However, when I'm cutting them from a foundationless frame - it seems to work much better.

The third advantage is that the bees seem to like it and will draw them out pretty darn fast!  I've done experiments with these in the past and they will have one drawn and in 'production' with brood in around 20 days or so.  Pretty amazing!

The forth advantage is that these can be recycled by simply melting the frames with steam and you end up with clean sterilized frames ready for starter strip and reuse in the hives.

I like to paint these frames with two stripes of paint that corresponds to the 'queen mark color' for that year.  So, in this case I have used Green with is the color for years ending in '9' and '4' I believe. This makes it quick for me to identify them in the box during inspection.  My goal is to be able to recycle all of my comb on a 3 year rotation.