Peeblesshire Beekeepers Association

2.0 EQUIPMENT

The Candidate will be

2.4 aware of the reasons for the use of wax foundation;

NOTES

Wax foundation is a sheet of wax imprinted with hexagonal templates of comb cells.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_foundation#/media/File:Mittelwand_17a.jpg

Foundation is designed to fit into standard frames so can be assembled and replaced easily.

It takes less time and energy for the bees to simply draw out the walls of the cells than if they have to make the entire comb from scratch. Only bees at a certain stage in their life cycle are capable of producing wax and they require extra energy to do so. Using foundation is less of a drain on the resources of the colony.

Foundation is usually supplied as worker sized cells but drone cell sized foundation can also be used.