a Deborah Corcoran snip followed by > my comments...
I have found you don’t need to cover all of all of the plastic foundation with the melted beeswax, just brush a few strokes on, flip, next frame. The bees draw it out fine. 

>Exactly right if you place the new frames and foundation on the hive at the proper time < timing is often the variable that a lot of novice beekeeper overlook. Also where (top or under supering) can be important.

>Personally I use a 2 gallon electric fired double boiler that I bought at a flea market that was originally used for cooking beans.  As suggest by other temperature is critical in that you want the wax to be hot and thin.  I use a small (about 1.5 inch in diameter) foam roller obtained at the local lumber yard that is sometimes used for staining trim.  These come in two lengths of 3 and 6 inch and one works well for mediums and the other for deeps.  You need not cover the entire bit of plastic so one swipe per side and you are done.  If you take time after the last swipe and place the foam roller in the air so it does not touch anything you can reuse the rollers again and again.

>One large advantage of the thicker plastic foundation is that with a bit of clean up and the above coating it is almost instantly ready to be reused.

Gene in Central Texas...

    

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