Its not like there is a Foundationless Beekeeping for Dummies book.
no, there is not, but i do have it on good authority that in the spring, such a book will be available from the competing series (aparantly dummies aren't smart enough to go foundationless, but complete idiots are) :)
a few thoughts:
1. extracting works fine when comb is aged (recently drawn comb full of honey is fragile), and well attached. i don't think i know anyone that extracts foundationless with a radial extractor, a tangential works better (less rotational speed, better support of comb).
2. i would never add more than 3 foundationless combs into a full box at once. removing every other drawn frame puts a lot of stress on the bees. bees have to cluster to build comb, raise brood, and ripen honey. by doing this, you make them cluster separately for each of 5 frames that need drawing, you make them cluster separately over each frame of brood, and each frame of honey. this short circuits the economy of scale that the bees use to manage their affairs.
3. there are some good reasons to use foundation. if there is a flow on (or you are feeding...see below), the bees will draw and fill foundationless comb at the same time, leaving little or no room for the queen to lay. foundation on the edges of the brood nest, however, allows the queen to lay in partially drawn cells (that are too shallow to put nectar in), so that the broodnest (and number of workers) can increase rapidly.
4. whereas feeding lots of syrup works well to draw foundation, feeding when drawing foundationless will tend to get the bees making honey storage comb, which is no good for raising workers.
5. we prefer popsicle stick guides to starter strips. starter strips can be warped and pulled from the weight/heat of the bees, and with a glued in wooden guide, an entire box can melted in the sun and the frames ready to get redrawn.
deknow