What is the best foundation for deep hive?

[ivashka]

Hi.  8-)I am new to beekeeping and I want to start out with 2 hives in the spring. What would be the best thing to do? Should I put plastic frames in the deep hive where the queen is going to be so she could start laying eggs right away. Or, should I put regular frames with plastic foundation or wax for them to start building their own wax or is bee wax better than plastic foundation? :? :? :?

[jclark96]

  I am running foundationless at the moment. The bees don't care, however you might need to fix some crossed combs. Also brand new comb will break easily if tilted onto it side or bumped very hard.Do a search for foundationless frames and you will get more info than you can read.
  Besides the initial expense of plastic, most people recommend replacing combs about every 3-5 years, so there would be a reoccuring expense as well.
  Wax foundation is reported to have chemicals in it left over from mite trearments before it was recycled into foundation.

[Joelel]

Hi.  8-)I am new to beekeeping and I want to start out with 2 hives in the spring. What would be the best thing to do? Should I put plastic frames in the deep hive where the queen is going to be so she could start laying eggs right away. Or, should I put regular frames with plastic foundation or wax for them to start building their own wax or is bee wax better than plastic foundation? :? :? :?

In the brood,starter strips and let them build their own.In the suppers,wire wax.

[Michael Bush]

It depends on your philosophy.  If you want natural, foundationless is hard to beat.  If you want small cell and don't mind plastic, the PF100 frames from Mann Lake are 4.95mm and cheap.  If you want small cell and you like wax and don't like plastic, then there are a lot of choices.  To me the weight of the box (deeps full of honey are 90 pounds) and the cell size are the issues I pay attention to.

[ivashka]

Thank You for your reply  :-D ;)

[TwT]

if you want regular foundation and just want to know who has the best, I like Walter T Kelly's foundation the best, it is a little thicker than others.

[Scadsobees]

Ha!  That is a trick question!

The BEST foundation is whatever you like to use best.

My best foundation is whatever is cheapest and easiest, at this point it is the PF100 all plastic frames/foundation.  Nice straight combs that last forever, well at least the foundation....

Close second best would be plastic in wood frames, followed by wired wax, then foundationless.

All drawn plastic sounds nice but as with all plastic frames there are acceptance issues.  Never tried it.

I'd actually recommend trying all of the above if you can, although mixing plastic foundation and wax foundation can be trouble.

[Robo]

Should I put plastic frames in the deep hive where the queen is going to be so she could start laying eggs right away.

If you are referring to Honey Super Cell fully drawn plastic frames, I don't think it will help the queen start laying quicker.  New HSC frames take a while for the queen to accept and start laying.  Also keep in mind that the wax foundation doesn't need to be fully drawn for the queen to start laying.  She will lay as soon as the bees start drawing the cells, and the bees will continue to draw the cells while the egg hatches and larvae grow and will have the cell fully drawn by the time they need to be capped.

Just make sure you feed them syrup so they can produce the wax needed to draw the comb.

[kdm]

 I agree with TWT. I like wired wax from Kellys with frames cross wired & embeded.