Tom Allen wrote: > > About a month ago I sent in a negative commentary on plastic > foundation.Although I have experienced some improvement in my bees reaction > to Pierco it is still not up to the reaction to a normasl wax foundation. I > started using it last year and got an almost 100% negative reaction and only > the slightest depth of comb was drawn on in one super and none on the other. > Having listened and read many peoples commentary I think that Pierco users > will get best results when the hive is 100 % Pierco. There is no doubt in my > mind that Pierco has some long range benefits in durability and certainly > knocks the effort of assembling rames to zero. This year I used one super of > Pierco in with two of wood and wax onn either side. It was far le;s than > satisfactory .The south side of the frames were hardly drawn out the north > side > were fully drawn but v ery irregular. The supers above and below were drawn > normally and well filled with honey . > I am also using some Duragilt. Last season was a real tough one here as > elsewhere. In some of the colonies I found much of the wax on the Duragilt > eaten away while other parts were used normallly. I was distraught when my > new colonies did not build on the bare plastic areas, and apparenlty made > some of them bigger..However as the summer has worn on the bees have fully > drwan the combs over all the Duragilt and show no preference with respect to > the plain wax foundation. > My plans for 1997 include one hive 100% duragilt, one hive 100 % Pierco, and > the rest in wax. There will probably be five hives next year.While most beekeepers would find the regular interspered method of introducing ANY foundation acceptable, it comes down to , what ever works for you.