Waxing Frames

The bee packages arrive in only a couple weeks! We'd better get those hive stands built sometime soon. I'm a little disappointed that they're going to straight-up miss the nectarine blossoms this year, but apples should be in full swing still.

In addition to the hive stands, the last bit of preparation I did was to prepare the frames.

The wax foundation I got with the frames I bought was wired. I'm not a fan of wired foundation and with these hives I'm going to do foundationless frames, so I cut the foundation up into strips along the wire lines.

Then I waxed the small strips to the top of the frames (I used a few pieces of foundation melted down, since I don't have a ton of wax lying around). It doesn't match up perfectly, but I've found that bees will just chew apart and redesign the wax if it doesn't work for them. This wax is just there to tell the bees where to make their combs.

It's been more than ten years since I last had bees, and I'm really looking forward to getting them going.

posted by ayse on 04/04/12