....please don't tell my bees!  we haven't used foundation in 4 years, and have about 30 hives (2-4 deep boxes) full of comb drawn without foundation.

if the frames surrounding the empty frame are fully drawn brood comb, the bees should draw it straight...but remember that left to their own devices, the bees will make about 15% drone comb...and if everything else in the hive is drawn from "worker foundation", the first foundationless frame they draw will likely be all drone comb.  if you pull this drone frame and replace it with another foundationless frame, they will again draw done comb (still trying to get to that 15%)...but if you move the drone frame towards the side and add another foundationless frame, they will draw worker comb.  we glue popsicle sticks into the top groove to act as a comb guide, and it works quite well.

michael bush has a lot of info on foundationless at his website:
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees
and we have some info on sc regression using honeysupercell and foundationless at our website:
http://www.beeuntoothers.com

deknow

-- Lyle Greenwood <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 If you use a frame without foundation they will build comb all
over the place.

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