>When I see a PF100, I expect to see it drawn perfectly about 30% of the time, the rest of the time it is untouched, done on one side, drawn with lumps of strange comb or other abnormalities.  Again, it will be attached the frame below sometimes.


This year I've attempted to convert my hives over to use Mann Lake PF120s (PF100 mediums).

The hives that were using already using Foundationless drew out the PF120s without any issues.

In hives consisting of solely "Large Cell" comb, the bees hardly touched the PF120s.    Only a few were well drawn, with most exhibiting the abnormalities mentioned above.

From both types of hives I pulled frames of fresh brood on PF120s to make a couple of all-PF120 nucs.    In both of the new nucs, the frames were drawn out quickly and flawlessly.

It appears that the smaller the pre-existing cell size, the easier it seemed to be to draw more of the same, or slightly smaller.     I speculate that the bees coming from large cells are too big to draw out small cells, but bees born in the variable cell size of foundationless have less of a gap to close.

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