Lance,
Gee, I am glad you explained everything.  You solved your own problem.

I agree with you about the Boardman feeder.  I NEVER use one, mainly because
it
presents an opportunity to robber bees to invade a new weak hive when there is
a nectar dearth.

Guess I am just old, but I despise a division board feeder, because the hive
has to be
opened to check it or replenish the feed, and too often, bees are drowned in
the feeder.  In cold weather (maybe not in Texas), bees can't get to the
division board feeder and might starve.  My choice of feeders is a gallon
glass jar upside down right on top of the frames.

I switched all my 135 colonies to Dadant's Plasticell foundation 20 years ago
when
it first came out.  It is absolutely GREAT STUFF.  I wish it had been
available 69
years ago when I started beekeeping, because I got so tired of wiring frames
and
using a spur wire imbedder to fasten the wax to the wire.  I bough 100 sheets
of
Pierco this summer, used some of it on some late splits, and am not as pleased
with it as I am with Dadant's plasticell.  Maybe, it was just too late to get
good
comb building, so I will reserve judgment until this coming spring.  However,
I can say that Dadant's Plasticell, wax coated, is wonderful stuff, bees love
it as if it
were beeswax foundation, it stays perfectly straight in the frame, my radial
extractor can spin it quite fast with no breakage, and if drone cells have
been drawn on it, you just take hive tool to scrape those away, give it back
to the bees and they
make beautiful worker comb again.

Basically, I don't like anything made of plastic, but I do like the
Plasticell.  I don't
like the plastic frames that I have seen, because the end bars break off if
one tries
to move the frames in cold weather.  Maybe they will improve this as time
goes on.

Have a fine holiday season.

George Imirie