do the bees have a frame prefernce?

[mamapoppybee]

Do the bees prefer wooden to plastic frames. From your expeirenc what is the best frame to work with?

[robo]

I don't know about the bees, but I hate plastic frames. They are too flexible for my liking and grippers don't hold them well.   I would suggest sticking with wooden frames.

[riverbee]

what robo said, the bees don't have a preference, it's the keeper's preference. like robo, i do not like plastic frames, they are too flexible for me as well.

[iddee]

I disagree. The bees do not like plastic and only use it when they have to. Put 5 of each in a hive and see what order they draw them.

[robo]

I disagree. The bees do not like plastic and only use it when they have to. Put 5 of each in a hive and see what order they draw them.

Frames or foundation?

[iddee]

I don't know of anyone using plastic frames with wax foundation, so I didn't consider that. I only considered wood and wax, wood and plastic, and plastic and plastic.

[riverbee]

iddee, i thought she meant plastic frames, not foundation....

[iddee]

Like my first sentence says, I have never seen wax foundation used in plastic frames, so I just took it for granted she was talking about plastic foundation in plastic frames, or either foundation in wood frames.

Also, another thought, SHB love plastic frames. It gives them many little crannies to hide in.

[mamapoppybee]

information on both types would be good for those of us just jumping in

[Slowmodem]

At our last bee meeting, there was a demonstration on a gizmo that you can use to assemble 10 wooden frames at a time.  After seeing all the hammering, gluing, nailing, etc.  I'll probably never use a wooden frame if I can help it.

I use all plastic.  If that's all they have, and if they're well fed, they seem to do all right.  Just take them out of the box and put them in the hive.  Easy peasy.

But I'm just a few years into this, so weigh this opinion appropriately. 

[G3farms]

I am a wood frame and wax foundation fella myself.

If you have small hive beetles (SHB) then they will love you for the plastic frames with all of the nooks and crannies to hide in.

[robo]

I don't know of anyone using plastic frames with wax foundation, so I didn't consider that. I only considered wood and wax, wood and plastic, and plastic and plastic.

I do know folks that have cut the centers out of their plastic frames to make them foundationless.

I guess the only way to tell their preference for "frame type"  would be to do 5 plastic frames and 5 wood frames with plastic foundation.    Personally I don't care what the bees preference is, because I despise plastic frames so much I would not use them even if it was the bee's preference.    Iddee.  I assume you don't use frame grips?

My preference is wooden frames with black rite-cell.   If wax foundation wasn't so fragile,  that would probably be my preference, but I have had great results with the rite-cell.

I do have a lot of experience with Honey Super Cell and can tell you queens hate it when it is new and refuse to lay in it.   The only consistent way I have found to get past this is to let them store honey in the new frames first.  Once they are used, the queen will lay in them fine and make beautiful brood patterns.

[iddee]

I don't use frame grips, and I don't use plastic.

I use strictly wood frames and wired wax, then cross wire the wax. Preferably Walter T. Kelley wax in slotted bottom frames. Their wax is just a bit longer then others in the deeps.

[blueblood]

I know we talked in chat a little but again, I had absolutely no problems with the plastic Rite Cell foundations which are in wooden frames all sold through Mannlake.  I preferred wax foundation and wood frames but I refuse to pay the excessive amount of shipping from Kelly where I originally bought all of my favorite frames and foundations (N style).  So, Mannlake won my business with their generous free shipping for $100 or more, every day of the year.  The trade off was trying Rite Cell, which has proven to work well.  Here is a pic of a fresh Rite Cell medium in wooden frame:

[Zookeep]

plastic frames for me is a death sentence here cause of hive beatels ,too many nooks in the frame, I like wood frames and ritecell from mann lakes also, they get all my business.

[LazyBkpr]

   I have quite a few PF 120's from Mann Lake that are completely plastic / small cell.   My use for them is dividing up the box when I put NEW bees in NEW frames.. I use medium foundation-less  the plastic breaks up the big open space and helps get the girls on track to making good straight combs..
   3 PF120's and 7 empty frames..  98% of the time they go straight for the foundation-less frames.. it works good for me, because once they are drawing the empty frames well, I can pop the plastic out and drop in another empty.. set the plastic aside for the next new start. I've left them in too long and had the bees start on them after they got the other combs mostly done, so I know they will draw them if they have no other choice.  It is rather obvious which they prefer 

[Jen]

I prefer wood frames and wax foundation. How many plastic logs and trees do you see out there with hives in them. I know I know that sounds dumb.... However, I like to keep things as natural as possible.

That said, I myself have plastic frames of which I'm not happy with at all. However, I didn't know at the time if I would like them or not. And, I was in a hurry cause my one and only hive was swarming like crazy and I had to transfer all my bees from my little patio hive to the standard size hive. Now, my hive is full and I don't know how to transfer out the plastic frames to wood and wax.

[Zookeep]

jaybird, I live in a place where you dont see 200 year old trees with giant hollows in them, bees will live anyplace and in anything where there is space, I have even found them building a new home on the underside of a plastic garbage can lid just cause the lid was not put on tight, I think it was Iddee that said during a flow you can get the girls to pull comb on anything even cardboard, alot of my hives have natural comb in the brood chambers but I will never use anything but ritecell for foundation in the honey supers, never get a blow out with that foundation during spinning

[robo]

Now, my hive is full and I don't know how to transfer out the plastic frames to wood and wax.

You can do it incrementally.   Since the outside frames most likely have no  brood in them, the next time you inspect remove the two outside frames and push the remaining plastic frames out toward the side leaving a open space in the middle.   Put 2 wooden frames with wax foundation in the void.    If any brood is pushed to the outside, once it hatches the queen will not lay more there.   Repeat this every time you inspect until all the plastic frames are gone.   

Save the plastic frames and use in swarm traps.  There is no better swarm trap lure than old comb.

[robo]

bees will live anyplace and in anything where there is space

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