3 Tips in 3 Minutes to Avoid Wonky Comb

One of the biggest things holding back new beekeepers is a lack of drawn comb. It limits the space that the queen can lay, and can hold back the entire colony. In this video I share some photos of the terrible comb that my bees drew in year 1 and go through three tips to help you avoid the same issue.

When I'm talking about wonky comb, I'm not referring to small pieces of cross-comb. I'm talking about comb that doesn't follow the pattern on the foundation and isn't built directly on the foundation. This is about comb built BETWEEN frames rather than ON frames.

Here are the tips:
1. Don't use black plastic foundation. Plastic foundation is sturdy and it makes for very consistent frames, which is useful for beekeepers. Black is handy because it makes seeing eggs very easy. But this is by far the toughest material/color combination for bees to draw correctly. I've switched to white and yellow plastic foundation. I tried foundationless, but it has its own issues. I may do a separate video on that.
2. Wax your plastic foundation heavily! Either melt down wax and apply it with a foam roller brush, or take wax and rub it on the frame directly like a crayon. I keep my burr comb and wax cappings from the honey harvest to wax frames.
3. Push your frames together. Frames are self-spacing. They have the perfect amount of beespace between them when shoved tightly together. The extra space in the box should be entirely on the outside edge. When you give too much space, your bees will fill that with wonky comb instead of building out from the frames themselves. This was a huge issue for me. Such a simple mistake, with such frustrating results.

If you have wonky comb, don't scrape it off. I was told, scrape it off, try again. Instead of this, push it down directly onto the foundation so that it lays flat. The bees put a ton of energy into producing wax, so you're saving their effort by doing this.

Hope these tips help!

#beekeeping
#beginnerbeekeeping
#honeybees

[mattzirkle]

Tips 2 and 3, makes tip 1 obsolete. never had a problem with black frames. As long as you live by 2 & 3. Spring is near!

[BeensBees]

Good comment from Reddit, before you smash the comb down onto the frame try to get any bees hiding behind it shaken out. Spot you queen and make sure she’s on another frame while you’re doing this.

[Gord]

I like black foundation in the brood boxes. it makes it much easier to see eggs. I use white for my honey supers.

[glennsnaturalhoney]

I see no differences in the color. Ive had yellow and black in the same box and they draw it equally well. It is usually the result of poor wax coating or a weak nectar flow/feeding. Bees need a heavy flow or heavy feeding to draw wax well. I've never heard of smashing the wonky comb down, I'll give that a try next time I see it. I usually scrape and rewax.

[josephvogel]

I haven't had issues specifically related to black foundation. Where I have seen this most is when new foundation is used that is sold with a wax coating that is not adequate. If you use new plastic foundation, roll on additional wax. I use an old electric skillet and a foam roller.

[MFB]

I melt the wonky comb with a heat gun and brush it over the plastic

[beemanrunning]

I use double waxed black plastic frames from Acorn and have had no problem with them. I find the biggest advantage to them is how easy it is to identify eggs against the black plastic.

[timmiller]

I have had best results with DD black foundation over yellow foundation. I thinks it’s more how much wax is melted on before.

[kilroy]

Brand new beekeeper here, getting my first nuc next week. What do you mean by putting wax on the plastic? How do you do that?

never mind just saw the same question below.

[lovelybees]

I think you should waxing proper this plastic sheet

[beckhamgharring]

Holy, this helps a lot. I just went down and they build comb right over the frame. It pissed me off.

[gotkittys]

I never see a color difference , but the hive must be side to side level. It can slope a tiny bit front- back.
Some colonies are bad for cross-comb, others just build straght perfect sheets.

[beebob]

I've kept bees on plastic (yellow, white, black). I've used wax foundation. I've used waxed plastic foundation. I've use unwaxed foundation.
In the twenty five years of beekeeping I found any foundation will be drawn. It matters on the strength in numbers, and the honey flow as to whether your bees will draw comb. IF they don't need new comb they won't build it.
Keep your frames tight when getting bees to draw wax. Sometimes you get this problem and sometimes you don't.
But most often this has happened when I put too many frames with foundation for the bees to draw.

[intheshellify]

Box store foundation has barely a wisp of wax. Bees hate it. Burr comb all day. Rolling on a generous coating of reclaimed wax helps. Wired wax foundation never fails. Side note...hard to squash beetles and moths with wax foundation. 😮😢😂

[fishmut]

I don’t see any reason to use plastic foundation when you got to heavily wax it anyway so why not just use beeswax foundation they will readily accept, to me this just does not make any sense but to creat lazy bee keepers thinking they can just put plastic in there and it will be all okey dokey not to mention isn’t there enough plastics in the world with out using more plastic, just sayin. I myself will always stay with wax that what bees do build wax, can’t blame them for shunning the plastic, they know it’s not theirs so why waste your time with un natural bee keeping accessories, food for thought.

[sj]

Thanks, i have this problem. I waxed all my frames but only 1/2 drew properly. Ill try smashing down the wonky comb.

[MinnesotaBeekeeper]

Has more to do with the manufacturer not heavy wax coating the black foundation, not the color. Mashing down the bad comb doesn't fix that problem. Scrap and rewax. My 2 cents. On the other hand you never see a commercial beekeeper mashing bad comb.

[blujen]

when you say you wax the plastic foundation, do you paint melted wax onto it, pour into the sheet to fill it, or do you dip the sheet prior to putting it into the frame? Thank you.

[BHOLT]

Smash it down even if it has honey/brood/pollen in the cells?

[wbccn]

Maybe I have been away from beekeeping to long but doesn't anyone use regular bees wax foundation anymore?