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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

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I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Preparing for Starter Strips in the Medium Boxes

Michael Bush suggested that to get the plastic based foundation out of the frames, I simply needed to push hard at the center. He did say that I might need to use a tool. Well, after pushing until my finger bled, I got a putty knife and a hammer and suggested rather strongly to the wax holding the foundation to the frame that it might want to let go.


















With some hammer and putty knife action, followed by bending the smaller side of the frame (the bottom), I actually was able to snap out the frame as Michael suggested I could. This emptied the medium frames for the starter strips.

















I put the comb over plastic from the old medium in a plastic garbage bag. Maybe I'll take it to the next bee meeting and see if anyone wants it - after all, it's drawn comb, albeit large cell.


















Then I took the frames for two hive bodies (20 frames) and waxed in starter strips. I'll put the boxes on the hives before I leave for work in the morning. I now have a wax tube fastener, but it didn't come with instructions, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to make the thing work. I gave up and used the bread pan again - worked fine. I now have a metal tube filled with wax that would not for love nor money come out of the tiny hole at the end. I'm going to post on Beemaster to find out how to use the !#$)%&#$%&)@ things.
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1 comment:

  1. Hi Linda!

    Please let me know if you figure out how to use the wax tube fastener. I also bought one and tried to use it and it failed miserably.

    From what I could tell, I need to heat up the metal tube part first in the boiling water while melting the wax, because the tube was cold and the melted wax went into it and immediately coagulated (especially in the little hole at the end where it is supposed to come out). The wax transferred its heat to the tube which then held the heat well (hot to the touch for a long time afterwards).

    I ended pouring the melted wax into a plastic cup and then dribbling that into the groove, but first I put the starter strip in the groove, otherwise the wax hardened way too quickly for me to put it in.

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