Most beekeepers today use a hive design called the Langstroth Hive, which is a series of hollow wooden boxes (open on top and bottom) that stack one on top of the other. Inside each box, like files in a filing cabinet, are a series of “frames.” Standard beekeeping practice today is to affix beeswax foundation, embossed with a honeycomb pattern, as a starter to get the bees going. Less commonly, beekeepers are choosing to forego the foundation, providing their bees with foundationless frames instead. While you won’t want to start a new hive only with foundationless frames, mixing frame types at the start gives the bees all the control they could want in what to build and how much of it.
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A foundationless frame and a “small cell” black plastic frame, examined by my much-missed cat Newsprint.
Foundationless frames are surprisingly controversial within beekeeping
Discussions about foundationless frames seem to get hopelessly tangled up around proper cell size and bee size, varroa control, chemical exposure, and a host of other things. I don’t want to focus on those areas, because frankly, whether or not there’s benefit in any of these areas, I’d use foundationless frames anyway. The basic facts (as far as I know) are that not long after movable frame hives came into circulation, beekeepers began pressing out sheets of beeswax to give new frames or new boxes a little more structure. I’ve found an 1878 Bee Journal that talks about comb foundation a lot.
Later, embossing technology made it possible to provide the bees with a “guide” for their building, which is when things got a little weird about bee size. And generally speaking, there’s the matter of what one does with all the wax collected over a season, especially if you have a lot hives. I’m sure this seemed like – and is – a terrific use of wax. In 1878.
Because here’s the thing – the comb is built from wax secretions that the bees themselves produce. A series of glands produce small flakes of wax that are worked into the structure. The comb, then, is not just the bones of the hive, but also its liver. What the bees are eating, chemicals that are flown into the hive with pollen or in the forager’s honey stomachs, those work their way into the comb. (Research suggests that chronic but low-level exposure to certain agents may be what triggers the end stage of Colony Collapse Disorder.)
That’s a lot of info. Here’s honey pulled from my hives. In the hive, these combs would be hanging straight down, with the midrib perpendicular to the ground. Cell are built out independently on either side, offset to increase strength:
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Also: Yum.
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Bees begin construction of honeycomb.
This is what new comb looks like being built on foundationless frames. Notice the different colors that are visible. The white at the edge is new, unused comb. The dark central area may have been honey or pollen, and the bright yellow at the top is pollen.
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A mostly-drawn frame.
Here the bees have filled the frame about three-fourths. When they draw their own comb, they leave gaps and unfinished areas according to their own designs. Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer, in The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Beekeeping, say this represents a form of “tuning” so that the bees’ dances, a primary form of communication, are conveyed. Might be true.
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Fully drawn frame
I prefer to think that my bees were overwhelmingly proud of this frame. I was certainly impressed.
They make weird comb sometimes too, though as the seasons progress things will get easier because I’ll have more drawn comb to feed into the hives, providing them with more guidance than the empty boxes they’ve contended with in the past. Year one was an adventure for all of us. Year three is going to be amazing.
Controversy or no, foundationless frame beekeeping is a great way to start
To steer clear of some of the more controversial topics in beekeeping, I’ll say this about foundationless frames as a management practice – it’s cheaper (no purchasing foundation), it saves time (no need to install foundation while building frames), it feels more sanitary (I don’t know what bee secreted that wax and what the beekeeper’s management practices are), and from a hobbyist perspective, foundationless doesn’t seem to hinder the hive development, and finally, I think I’ve learned more about bees and how they build and what they like to build by letting them handle the design side of things.
Want an unlimited broodnest? Cool, don’t let me stop you. Want to build a bunch of drone comb? Knock yourselves out.
So I’m a big fan of foundationless frames, and I think the utility to the bees – flexibility in design and no pre-existing chemical load – will only increase as the years go by.
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