Concerning drawing wax foundation to make comb, beemakree asked " Do you buy
this foundation with "extra wax" or do you dip it yourself to get the extra
wax on it?"

The answer is 'neither'.  The folks who make foundation (largely just Dadant
and Kelley) have learned how much wax to put on a sheet to 'make it work'.
It doesn't take much, but it seems to be 'the more the better'.

But, it is also not that simple.  For example, I have seen Pierco frames
almost yellow with wax, and still the bees hesitate to draw it.  As another
example, the #1 difficulty of those using a plastic base to get comb honey
(a la Bee-O-Pac and Halfcomb) is that the bees do not want to draw it
out *unless
the flow is very strong*.  A friend likes to say that "if the flow is very
strong, the bees will draw comb on concrete", which is probably true, but
the desire is to also get them to draw comb on 'normal' flows, which is what
we have most of the time.

Beekeepers have little difficulty getting bees to draw comb from beeswax
foundation, but inevitably 'some' difficulty getting them to draw comb on
plastic, even when it is coated with beeswax.  For brood combs, I only
use plastic foundation coated with beeswax, in wood frames.  It is worth the
added difficulty.

Hope i have helped,

Lloyd

--
Lloyd Spear
Owner Ross Rounds, Inc.
Manufacture of equipment for round comb honey sections,
Sundance Pollen Traps, and producer of Sundance custom labels.
Contact your dealer or www.RossRounds.com

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