Wood Frames with Wired Beeswax Foundation

We build these deep (9-1/8”) wood Langstroth frames in-house with wired beeswax foundation and US beeswax. The foundation is vertically wired and then supported with wood slats on the end bars.  This resists sagging, and eliminates the need for intrusive cross wiring.  It also provides extra stiffness to the frame.

Before plastic foundation came along, all foundation was pure beeswax.  Although labor intensive and fragile to manufacture, it offered great benefits: Lighter than plastic, it is much thinner, allowing much better heat transfer between opposing cells. It is also especially helpful when the bees are having trouble finding forage. In fact, when forage is scarce, they will often chew wax out of the corners of the foundation to build comb in the middle for brood production.  These frames also have a much lower environmental footprint than plastic

Handling: Beeswax foundation is more fragile than plastic, and should be handled carefully until the comb is drawn, which makes it much stronger.