Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => NATURAL & ORGANIC BEEKEEPING METHODS => Topic started by: Hannah-Davida on February 25, 2008, 07:27:31 pm
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Who, if anyone...and heaven help me I've tried to find them, sells "organic" foundation.
Ta very much!
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fat/beeman "Don" Has chemical free wax. I believe it is only available in small cell though. you can contact him by pm or here is a link to his site. http://www.geocities.com/fatbeeman/
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Thanks! Query has been sent. :)
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According to MAAREC(mid-atlantic apicultural research extension consortium) says all "commercial wax' fouindation has shown to contain chemicals such as apistan and coumophous(checkmite) I am unsure how any provider can promise no chems in there wax unless they produce all of it themselves. How can one beekeeper make enough wax for saleable quantities of wax. They must buy it from other beekeepers. Do they use chems? How about chems the bees bring back from foraging in the fields. I personally decided to use plastic foundation and will scrape every two years to prevent accumulation of environmental contamination and spread of viruses. I say this info because I dont know the answer, not to suggest any one provider isn't chem free, but I am unsure as to how they can "promise" this result. Thinking out loud.....
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Did you check out his website? I believe he has several hundred hives and they are chem free. all of em. he has been in ventrilo chat on sat. evenings and if you have time should try to tune in and ask him some questions.
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Did you check out his website? I believe he has several hundred hives and they are chem free. all of em. he has been in ventrilo chat on sat. evenings and if you have time should try to tune in and ask him some questions.
I just might! I asked because I dont know the answer. Bees wax is a very interesting substance w/ lots of good and bad attributes. It absorbs so many types of contaminants. The only source of chemicals is not just the beekeeper, but the entire environment. I analogize it to "organic" honey claims. Clearly, i would prefer a beek who uses no chems, which i think is as good as its going to get in the real world.
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Why don't you just let the bees build it for you? You can't get more organic than that. Try foundationless frames. Do a search, there are several threads on it.
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Don has enough bees that he most definitely can produce his own wax supply. I've seen his operation and watched him make foundation, as a matter of fact, here's a picture of him doing just that (http://annzoid.com/images/Bees/don.jpg)!