Why I use natural wax foundation sheets in all my hives

I initially started out with a FLOW style hive and flow frames, drawn in by their beautiful architecture and the simplicity of the harvesting process. I think that FLOW has done a wonderful job at changing the beekeeping world and it certainly opened the doors for me however my bees swarmed within the first month of moving them home. After much research and countless discussions with seasoned beekeepers I concluded that the bees don’t like to work the deeper cells or the plastic frames, and the most plausible reason for them swarming is them thinking that they didn’t have enough room rather than adapt to the new frames.

With this conclusion I changed to plastic foundation, it seamed like a cost effective step forward, at around $2.50 per sheet and the simplicity of popping them in and out of a frame seemed the perfect step forward. I had to purchase wax from the beekeeping supply store (which was an expensive ordeal) and melted it down to a liquid state before using a roller to roll it over the frames, this made the frames smell a little less like plastic and encouraged the girls to draw comb. Whilst they appeared to like this more than the FLOW frames they started to produce ununiformed and patchy wax work both in the brood box and in the super, far from the picture perfect Instagram photos and detailed illustrations in beekeeping books

So, after lots of YouTube videos and detailed research and phone calls with my mentor, I conjured up the confidence to wire frames and use natural wax foundation and I was absolutely blown away with the outcome. The same hive that swarmed, and drew out patchy cells were now creating amazing, textbook comb, no more patchy or empty frames! Not only did this increase the productivity in the hive but it allowed more room for the queen to lay eggs in the brood box and it gave the bees purpose, I noticed a significant decrease in bees “wash boarding” at the hive entrance and honey production increased!

After several years keeping bees it still amazes me that the girls can draw out so much comb in such a short amount of time and I’ll admit, using sheets of wax foundation is a little more work, it’s a little more costly and you need to be a little more gentle when spinning honey but from my experience it is totally worth it. Happy bees, natural concepts and delicious honey