What people say about plastic foundation / bee frames

  • I use plastic foundation with wood frame mixed with normal foundation. Just rub the plastic foundation with some beeswax and away you go. Another option would be rolling warm wax on it as said above, or just spray some sugar syrup on it.

    SWN Beekeepers forum 2021

  • To be honest I have not noticed much difference. Started with a Langstroth, all plastic brood & 2 supers, put a Nuc in it and had no issues built up well and gave a bit of honey year 1.

    Year 2 it was split some plastic brood frames went in with wax foundation and never noticed any issues. Bought 100 brood frames that year no issues. Now got some nationals as well but don’t use supers, I use brood boxes above a QX for honey. I don’t really use plastic in the Langstroth supers as I now have about 1000 drawn comb which I just reuse. Re brood frames it is so easy to scrape off the old wax, pop the plastic out, boil the frames, scrub the plastic and put back together

    I don’t have access to heather but if I did I would use plastic pre drawn out from the OSR flow, extracted and then used for heather so it could be scraped off & pressed

    Wingy Beekeepers forum 2017

  • We use full plastic frames, although these are for Langstroth and not National.

    I have to say I love them and have many 1000's of them in use.

    tidymeup Beekeepers forum 2009

  • I’ve used them for ten years and I have not managed to replicate other people’s enthusiasm. The bees readily draw out comb on wax foundation whereas plastic requires a honey flow. By always having fresh drawn plastic comb in the brood boxes, I have taken many years to build up a stock of drawn supers. Hence small harvests. I’m moving to use more wax foundation even though seeing open brood is like driving in fog.

Most beekeepers in the UK use wax foundation, and plastic frames are outside their concept field. Wooden frames with wax foundation look nice, and the bees draw comb well. I recommend you start with wood unless you have a particular reason to use plastic. Check the sustainability of the frames by looking at the growth rings. A plastic brood frame should last more than two decades, whereas a wooden frame will need to be replaced many times in this period. The longevity of plastic frames may mean that their carbon footprint is not so bad. After 20 years, when my frames come to the end of their useful life, so will I.

Super full of honey

© Crown copyright Nice super

Summary

Plastic frames make it easy to see eggs.

The foundation is durable and can be reused many times.

Bees draw wax slowly/with difficulty.

Wax foundation is drawn out rapidly.

Wooden frames are fragile and require assembly.

Page 1F-b

Wooden frames can be boiled up in a solution of washing soda, but tweezing the wooden slips apart is fiddly. After single use, many beekeepers throw them away or burn them on their hearth.