New Beekeeper's Equipment List

[BlueBee]

I started playing with some foundationless this summer.  I used a triangular top bar.  That worked great when they got around to combing up the foundationless frames.  However, my bees combed up every one of my Pierco plastic foundation frames before touching the foundationless.  Go figure, bees will be bees.  I alternated foundation and plastic every other frame. 

I agree with everything Frameshift said, but I would add that my bees were stubborn or too fat.  They would not comb out my (small cell) PF frames.  They drew out the Pierco plastic fine, but not the PFs.  I finally had good success with the PFs after I listened to Bee Bop (user name) and rolled a nice coat of bees wax on my PF frames. 

Hence if you’re going to add the PF frames to your list, you might also want to buy some bees wax and a 4 inch roller.  It's always something with the bees....

[LoriMNnice]

Hi
 I am also new and pretty much asked the same questions as you :) and it sounds like we are doing the same thing as far as getting started with bees I am going to PM you my e-mail and if you want we can e-mail each other and learn things together :) or get confused together. And because I am a cheapskate I have complied a list of pricing for certain items that may be useful to you.

[BlueBee]

Here’s a couple photos of some foundationless frames my bees combed up and started to comb up.  I used a triangular starter strip on the top bar as Mr Bush suggested and that worked great. 





In my case, I used a table saw, titled the blade to 45 degrees and sliced off a number of triangular strips from a 1x8 board.  Each strip was about 19mm wide.  I them chopped them to length and glued and air nailed the strips to a frame. 

[Honeytree]

Thanks, Lori. I PM'ed you back.  :)

BluBee, those are gorgeous! You must have been pleased to pull those out of the hive. Thanks for sharing the pictures; I was wondering what the attachments to the V-shaped bars would look like.

[buzzbee]

And this is a pic of just a plain medium frame without foundation placed between some other frames.

[annette]

And this is a pic of just a plain medium frame without foundation placed between some other frames.

And that is what most of my frames look like since I started going foundationless.!!

[Honeytree]

Geesh, that'd be enough to persuade anybody! What a beauty! Buzzbee, were the frames on either side of that one drawn foundationless, too?

[buzzbee]

They were foundationless,but you usually are best to get your bees started with foundation and put foundatioless in between full drawn frames when they become available.
If you put a bunch of foundationless frames in at once you may or may not get straight comb. That depends on the bees. Sometimes without guidance( or even with for that matter)they like to draw some really messy crooked cross comb.
The whiteness of the comb is because of a nectar flow and the bees building new wax comb to store it.You can see the off colors where they had stored pollen in some of it. After a while with bees walking all over it with dirty feet the comb does get darker.And if it's in the brood box as opposed to honey supers it will darken from foot traffic and cocoons from brood rearing remaining in the cells.
But it is cool pulling out a frame of fresh wax,touching and feeling how soft it is and the smell of beeswax can be quite addicting too.

The color of the new wax can also be affected by what the bees are bringing in too. Not all fresh wax is white.

[caticind]

And this is a pic of just a plain medium frame without foundation placed between some other frames.

And that is what most of my frames look like since I started going foundationless.!!

Likewise, and I use deeps.

[CapnChkn]

Well, getting to the thread late.  I wuz asl33p.

If you look in the section with the gloves in the large chain building supply, you might find a pair that are rubber on the outside, lined on the inside, and really thick.  They're not disposable and I have a pair of socks I cut finger holes in and draw them over the cuffs.  They look like the dishwashing gloves with actual dishpan hands.  I've never been stung through them, but they are getting sticky and dirty with the Propolis now.

The puncture resistant nitrile gloves are black in color and may be overkill.  I've not used any of the disposible yet, I'm thinking the bees don't sense skin under their feet so don't sting.