New Hobby: Bee Keeping

[massphatness]

We’ve thought about trying out foundationless frames in the future. It’s awesome to be able to cut chunks of comb with honey right from the frame. The downside for me is that the bees then need to completely re-create the comb instead of just focusing on honey production. Also, the guy who does our extractions charges more if we use foundationless frames because it apparently takes longer and makes a mess of things. For now, we are going to continue to go with the pre-printed plastic frames, but I’d love to try the foundationless frames once I have some more experience under my belt.
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[BigAsh]

that dark amber honey looks delish!!..reminds me of a dark Amber I once knew...😎

[357]

Originally Posted by massphatness

We’ve thought about trying out foundationless frames in the future. It’s awesome to be able to cut chunks of comb with honey right from the frame. The downside for me is that the bees then need to completely re-create the comb instead of just focusing on honey production. Also, the guy who does our extractions charges more if we use foundationless frames because it apparently takes longer and makes a mess of things. For now, we are going to continue to go with the pre-printed plastic frames, but I’d love to try the foundationless frames once I have some more experience under my belt.
Posted via Mobile Device

You can get an inexpensive manual extractor and do it yourself. The decent ones have a clutch so the crank handle doesn't take your arm off once you let go. The nicer ones yet spin the frames radially, allowing you to skip the step of flipping the frames over (like you have to on a tangential extractor) , plus is much friendlier to foundationless wax. With a manual extractor, you can carefully control the speed to prevent blowouts.

My extractor is a $120-ish 2-frame tangential but I have my eye on a 4/8-frame preferably with a clutching handle. There are a few manufacturers, and all will do 4 frames tangentially or 8 radially. I just haven't picked one I want yet. They run $250-300 or higher for name brands.