Okay, you know how it works.
The supply catalog comes out and you dream about the convenience of plastic foundation and the "all-in-one" plastic frame/foundation.
You grimace at the time it takes to assemble wood frames, cross-wire the horizontal support wires and insert wax foundation. Then you need to embed the wires into the wax.
You think there has to be a better way, and though they appear to be a little more pricey, those plastic frames really catch your eye. Could this year be the year you transition your hives into frames of plastic foundation?
If you were to take a poll among beekeepers, you would find a highly idealistic hope that plastic would be a snap, but in reality, the bees seem to hate and despise plastic foundation. Beekeepers become frustrated. Yields drop. Hives dwindle. Money is wasted.
So how does one take advantage of the perceived benefits of plastic foundation?
1. You cannot manage frames with plastic foundation in the same manner as frames with wax foundation. With wax, almost anything goes and they'll draw it out. With plastic, you need to be selective.
2. Plastic foundation works best in strong, healthy colonies, during an intense nectar flow, with an expanding brood nest headed by a vigorous queen. It also helps if you use a race of bees that love to draw out comb, i.e. Italians.
3. Unfortunately, these colonies, under these conditions are prone to swarming. Here's a cardinal, inviolate rule: Do not let your colonies swarm. A swarmed colony has a reduced work force and as they wait for a new queen to emerge, this colony will lose their motivation to grow and expand.
4. Pull out frames of drawn comb that are either empty or filled with nectar and pollen. Insert frames of plastic foundation. When the colony is really bustling with activity and drawn comb is limited, bees will eagerly draw out more foundation out of necessity.
Further, if you pull the outside frames in the brood box and insert new foundation in the brood nest, you will almost guarantee the acceptance of plastic foundation.
Basically, any time you can restrict the availability of drawn comb, the bees will draw out foundation out of necessity, you'll get a better response to plastic foundation.
5. Do not expect new packages or newly retrieved swarms to draw out plastic foundation. You will be sorely disappointed. It is far, far better to establish a new package on wax foundation, and once the first generation of brood is emerging (young bees with active wax glands), you can begin to insert frames of plastic foundation. It also helps to feed these new packages, and it also helps to insert a few frames of foundation between two frames of emerging brood.
6. Add more wax to the nominal and inconsequential wax coating provided by the manufacturer. Simply dip a 4" foam paint roller in melted beeswax and "paint" on an additional coat of wax. I use my old cappings for beeswax and a used crock pot bought at a garage sale to heat the wax.
7. Forget spraying on sugar syrup. The syrup won't stick and you cannot add enough to entice the bees.
8. Always start ten frames of plastic foundation in a honey super. You can space them out to nine per super later.
9. Never, never, never mix wax foundation and plastic foundation in the same super, and never alternate frames of wax/plastic in a super. You will only guarantee a giant mess.
And bear in mind, once the foundation is drawn out into your lovely comb, mixing frames is immaterial of their origin. Drawn comb is drawn comb.
10. Crowd your bees a little, push them into expanding into a super of plastic foundation. It goes along with limiting the available drawn comb, and yes, you have to watch out for the swarming impulse. But if you present frames of foundation and at the same time you press your bees into a single brood box, the bees will naturally look to expand the hive and they'll draw out plastic foundation quite readily.
11. As that super is being drawn out, don't expand too fast. Before you add another super, wait until 7 of those 10 frames are drawn out.
12. Then as you add another super, bottom super, that is, place that new super under the existing super for best results.
13. Use top entrances, which may be an Imirie shim or a 3/4" hole drilled into your super, just under the hand hold.
14. Never use a queen excluder when placing a super of new foundation over the brood nest. Wait until the bees begin drawing out the frames of foundation, even at the risk of allowing the queen to lay eggs in the super. Once the frames are beginning to be drawn out, catch the queen (if she's moved up into the super) and transfer her to the lower brood boxes. Then add your queen excluder under your supers. If you do this three weeks prior to your intended extraction date, your supers will be free of any brood.
15. Don't expect your bees to draw out plastic foundation once the flow is over, this happens mostly in late summer in many areas. Even if you try and feed them, the bees seem to sense the change in the seasons.
16. Orient your frames on a North-South plane. Yes, this sounds weird and off the wall, but turn your hives so the entrance faces South rather than East. See if this doesn't help your bees to draw out the plastic foundation.
17. Remember that plastic foundation isn't perfect and the bees have to be "enticed" to draw it out. This requires extra management.
18. If you get your plastic foundation drawn into lovely comb, for goodness sake, do not let the wax moths or mice destroy it. Protect it! It takes too much work to get it drawn out to squander all your resources.
19. Still have questions? e-mail me at
