>Generally, the way I operate...I have not observed the huge difference between waxed and
unwaxed that others have reported.  Granted, waxing reduces the need for
careful timing and placement and speeds the drawing of comb, but not
whether the bees respect the pattern or not.
>Trust me.  I have drawn a lot of comb in my career and know
how to do it.  Comb was my livelihood for years.

I certainly appreciate the experience you have in drawing comb Allen.

With that said, I think it would be a stretch (at best) to assume (or even consider) that even under favorable conditions that unwaxed plastic would be drawn as "accurately", or as "well" by whatever criteria you want to apply as unwaxed...espeically if you are talking about "fins" of wax between the combs.  You can make that claim if you like, but I think anyone with experience with plastic foundation will have their own opinion on the subject, and I expect that few would agree with you.

You are reporting on observations between 2 brands of plastic (likely different formulations, different cell imprint), 2 different cell sizes....in my experience, I would expect all of these to be 2nd or 3rd order effects when compared to being waxed or unwaxed.

I do agree that timing and conditions are also a huge factor here...but in this case, they don't seem to be variables...the timing with all the plastic was the same.  But no matter what the conditions (from swarm to winter cluster), I would be surprised not to see more "off the foundation" comb unwaxed plastic.  From here, this seems to be what you have demonstrated, but instead are ascribing the differences to other variables.

deknow

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