Hmm, when I use plastic foundation with wooden frames, the bees happily draw
comb up to, and partially on to, the wooden frame. The comb "glues" the
plastic foundation to the frame quite nicely, and they are as solid as
anything else.

However, if yours are not doing that, I do have another solution. I made up
a top-bar hive and found that the bees were having trouble with the wax
starter strips. They didn't like to use them, and when they did the comb
they built had a tendency to fall off under the weight of the bees, which
further dis-interested them in building. So I took some plastic foundation
to a table saw and made thin (maybe one inch) strips out of it. The strips
were placed in the groove which had formerly held the wax starter, and I
nailed in five frame nails, alternating sides with each one. At first I did
only one side but it was obvious that it needed nailing from both
directions. I drove each nail in about halfway, then bent the head down so
it formed a sort of V shape, securely holding the foundation in (the ones I
drove all the way in tended to simply pull through the plastic foundation).
You could easily adapt this to your standard frames, but I haven't found it
to be necessary.

Regards,

Bosaiya


.....designs to knock you out.....
http://www.knockoutproductions.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, July 04, 2000 9:06 AM
Subject: Re: Frame & foundation mis-fit


<snip>

>        We use grooved bottom bars and the plastic sheets seem to fit
>correctly. However there is a serious problem with simply snapping
>the sheet into the top and bottom groove. If the frame contains 5 or
>6 pounds of honey, all of this weight rests on the bottom bar, which
>was not designed for this. I have seen the bottom bars blow out when
>handled roughly (like when you thump a super full of honey down on
>the truck bed).
>        Normally a piece of foundation is fastened securely to the
>side bars and even the top bar, if you use frames with the nail in
>strip in the top bar. Obviously the top bar and the sides handle the
>weight of the honey, the bottom bar simply completes the frame. Also,
>if you skimp on the nails in the bottom bar, the weight of the comb
>may push the bottom bar out.

<snip>