Foundationless Hive Frames

A dummy board is basically a block of solid wood shaped like a frame that takes up the space of one or two frames limiting the bees to start on the frames that you put between them.

Foundationless hive frames.

I don t have the experience of starting a completely new hive on foundationless frames but it seems to make sense to me. It s going on 5 years now that i ve been using foundationless frames in my langstroth hives and i ve come to swear by the method. Most beekeepers who decide to try foundationless frames make the mistake of doing so only in the honey supers. This might be because their hive is already established with the brood nest already built out or because they are first time beekeepers worried about jumping right into foundationless beekeeping but either way it s a bad idea.

Mainstream beekeeping dictates the use of foundation in hive frames to provide a structure for the bees to build their combs upon. Foundation coated with wax potentially contains chemicals to which you do not want to expose your bees. The beginner does not have the experience to deal with this. However i ve found 3 reasons to contradict that way of thinking.

Langstroth s hive and the honey bee and close ups of the original foundationless frames and the comb guide in my experience the bees will draw their own comb faster than they will draw foundation.