Hi all Allen brought in... > I have taken to keeping an undrawn frame of plastic > foundation on the outside of brood boxes. It is like a follower board in > that it is easy to pull, but if the bees get crowded, they can draw it out. I have never tried it with plastic foundation, but I suspect that in UK it would happen much the same as happened with wax foundation. I will start from the beginning... I used to be in the habit of pulling the outermost frames in the 3rd or 4th week in January and leaving empty spaces in the outer two positions (it is too cold for the bees to build wild comb in these spaces at this time) a fortnight or three weeks later I would place frames with foundation in these flanking positions. It was common for these frames to remain undrawn even when the space was needed, what was common was that the face of the comb next to the foundation frame was extended to within a bee space of the foundation and just a few bridged across braces. This was a mess and a waste of foundation and so the practice was discontinued. This was done before I had discovered the benefits of insulated tops and the empty spaces helped to keep the condensation to a minimum, part of the objective was to get the expanding nest to use up the pollen stores that were closest to the centre of the nest, but possibly not as fresh as some in the outer combs which they would have used first if given the chance. The pulled frames would be used in the formation of nucs later in the season. Best Regards & 73s, Dave Cushman... G8MZY Beekeeping & Bee Breeding Website Email: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman & http://www.dave-cushman.net :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::