and some of us think that no foundation is the way to go. i go organic and dont want the chems that are in commercial wax. i have a lang right now with 5.4 that im regressing to 5.1. so far theyve been ok on the 5.4 anyway.
My thoughts exactly, for several reasons (many that I plagarize from Michael Bush)
1) Foundation has chemicals in it
2) Foundation forces a certain cell size, or at least tries to
3) Foundation isn't what a swarm (which is pretty much what a package is) would typically find
4) Bees take a while to build on foundation - my girls on starter strips had outpaced last year's plasticell within 72 hours
5) They'll build what they think they need, foundation doesn't help
6) disease control - I think the jury is still out on this one, but it makes sense.
These bees were installed 4/15, and are going crazy, the flow is just starting! I'll probably have to add another medium mid-May.