"Larry Krengel" wrote: "I wonder if the Darwinians would
contend that if plastic foundation were better the bees would have developed
plastic-producing glands on their bellies instead of wax glands? (just being
factious...)" No, not fractious - that is the point. Respect for nature, as
it has evolved over not one million years but at least 34 million according
to the fossils. (Always humbling to reflect that Home Sapiens - wise man -
has been around only 1/4 of one million).
The scientific - rather than just romantic - point is that, as bees evolved,
they developed behaviours to suit conditions in which they had to adapt or
die. They were good at it. The behaviours that encouraged survival became
instincts, fixed in their genes. Bees have impressive powers of measurement
and calculations, but do not seem to be able to reason - only man can do
that. So if we impose on bees something artificial (meaning man-made, not
occurring in the natural world), bees have only their instincts to guide
their response. Bees never met plastic within their brood nest in 34 million
years. So the question is, how will they respond and will that be
beneficial? If they can learn a new trick, all is well and bees will be on
the way to developing a new instinct.  If the jump is too much, they will be
disorientated, demoralised (as humans are when faced with a problem too
large for them to cope) and stressed - stress seems to affect the immune
systems of aninimals including humans, and shows up in increase of disease.
(Remember the study on the crew of a US warship isolated at sea - there was
direct correlation between falling ill and problems at home).
Observations of response to plastic have been mixed. Some users have said
bees do not like it and nibble off the wax coating but can be forced to draw
it out by creating an artificial nectar flow ahead of the natural flow.
Others more recently are saying no difference against wax foundation. My
guess on the nibbling is that bees' instinct is to remove anything that
obstructs the space in their cavity - they nibble the sides of a tree cavity
to remove loose material, then coat everything with propolis.
Why might they not like having sheets of plastic slicing through the brood
nest? Well, honeybee nest architecture is a natural miracle. Honeybees have
evolved a way to make their nests wholly of pure material, all secreted from
their own bodies, without incorporating say paper as wasps do - they can
mould the wax to produce cells of different sizes distributed around the
nest as they wish, moulding the cell bases simultaneously from both sides
(how easily do bees work when the sides of the comb are isolated by rigid
plastic, how easily are drone cells built on plastic worker base?) The brood
nest is the womb of the colony, considered as a single super-organism. Here
the fertilised eggs are laid, embedded onto the cell walls in much like the
way a fertile human egg is implanted in the womb (how readily do queens lay
in a cell with plastic underlying the base? We know wires in wax foundation
are unnatural - and that the bees leave empty cells down the wires when
laying out a new comb). Here the delicate embryos are fed a carefully
controlled diet, so well adapted to needs that they multiply their body
weight XXX times in only six days. The needs of each larva are detected by
the ordours given off, the diet varying with age (does the plastic emit a
foreign smell as it decays, which all plastics seem to do?). The temperature
and especially the humidity are carefully controlled or the larvae can be
chilled and become sick (how does the conductivity of plastic compare?).
Disease organisms are endemic, eager to perpetuate their own life cycles by
parasitising the delicate larvae. The bees know how to collect naturally
occurring antibiotics with which to sterilise and varnish the cells between
use (does plastic in the comb help or hinder disease organisms?) The older
bees communicate by dancing on the combs, using buzzing runs to communicate
distance and direction to food sources, and a swarm issues after scout bees
have worked the bees into a frenzy of excitement by performing buzzing runs
on the combs (is the natural resonance of the combs affected?).  Virgin
queens also pipe to send vibrations thru the combs - bees do not hear
air-borne sound.   So, when we force the bees to accept a foreign unknown
substance in the layers between the cell bottoms, how much do we know of how
that may affect the bees by changing the malleability, conductivity,
flexibility ? Do we know if it induces stress, by creating conditions the
bees are unable to bring back to normal, and how much do we care? Are we
simply exploiters, enslavers, of the bee - or carers, interested in and
admiring the natural order within the nest?
The main argument in favour of plastic foundation seems to be that it saves
the beekeeper's time. Surely the best way for a hobbyist to save time, if
not interested in bee behaviour, is to keep fewer colonies better or to give
up beekeeping?
For avoidance of doubt, can I emphasise that all this concerns only plastic
as used for comb foundation.  Writing on 24 April, Jim Fischer seemed unable
to distinguish between plastic foundation and " metal hive tools, nylon bee
brushes, plastic queen excluders, stainless-steel extractors, tin
smokers ...."  I am still hoping these other items are not routinely left
within brood nests.
Jim also sticks to comparing plastic for hobby use with wax foundation
fitted to pre-wired frames rather than wired wax sheets.  Pre-wired frames
need special equipment for efficient management, which the hobbyist does not
have and obviously would find such frames slow. I was told this weekend of a
Danish firm that makes its own strong wooden wired frames.  After use, a
complete box is placed in a steam chamber, then dropped into a boiling tank
with soda, then rinsed by power washing. The individual frames are laid on a
jig, the wires hand-tightened with a crimper, then thick unwired foundation
is dropped on. The whole frame is pushed forward onto the transformer and
the foundation is fixed in seconds. One worker rewaxes 7,000 frames each
winter. The bees scrape out the thick cell bases and use the wax to build up
the cell walls.  That's business, not hobby work.  Obviously a business
would also bolt 4 drills to a jig and drill six frame bars with each pull of
a lever when making the frames. Jim's estimate of time for working with wax
foundation has no relevance to either hobbyist or professional.
Robin Dartington

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