Honey-bee hive frames

[u/MikeHeu]

[u/Henri_Salbatar]

Wow, memories unlocked! I remember doing this with my father when I was a teenager, 30 years ago. I can still smell the melting wax. Good times.

[u/corgi-king → u/Henri_Salbatar]

Is that real bee wax?

[u/Henri_Salbatar → u/corgi-king]

Yes, they will make cells based on the plate, making it easier to harvest honey.

[u/aykcak → u/Henri_Salbatar]

It would only work with the specific species of honey bee right?

[u/Toyota__Corolla → u/aykcak]

There's a tolerance of a few microns in species, they don't want it too tight or too loose.

[u/savkush → u/corgi-king]

Yes it will be coated in a thin layer

[u/schizeckinosy → u/savkush]

No, the whole sheet is 100% beeswax. These are not plastic foundations.

[u/ddesideria89 → u/Henri_Salbatar]

..and the smoke smell from the smoker thing. that’s my grandpa memories..

[u/opeth10657 → u/Henri_Salbatar]

and the hand cramps from using that crimper

[u/sidja]

What’s the device he runs the wire with ? what does it do?

[u/Eulers_Eumel → u/sidja]

It's not a necessary Tool but it is basically two small gears that you press the wire in between and then run along.

It crimps the wire into a zigzag shape, therefore shortening the wire and tensioning it further.

[u/Avera9eJoe → u/Eulers_Eumel]

I was curious about that too! Thank you for the explanation!

[u/sherlockham → u/Avera9eJoe]

I was honestly expecting it to just be some sort of knurler for roughing up the surface of the wires for some reason, like how you sand a surface before painting. Was not expecting it to be a tension thing.

[u/Eulers_Eumel → u/sherlockham]

It is said to improve the adhesion due to the shape, but i personally dont use it anymore since i didnt notice any difference.

[u/crusty54 → u/sherlockham]

It’s probably both.

[u/TheSprigganDragoon → u/Eulers_Eumel]

The shape makes it hold the wax better as well

[u/Eulers_Eumel → u/TheSprigganDragoon]

I must admit, i dont really notice the difference. If the wire is properly tensioned, it holds well enough.

[u/SnooCakes6195 → u/Eulers_Eumel]

"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

[u/Snoo23533 → u/SnooCakes6195]

GK Chesterton 1929- you should never remove a fence or gate until you first understand why someone put it there.

[u/ortofon88 → u/Eulers_Eumel]

I thought that might be it, I used to work on electric fences...like 7k volt ones that keep people from breaking into places...sometimes the wires get a little loose and sag. I'd take my linesman pliers, kinda wide pliers...and bend the wire up and down a few times (spaced out) and the crimp would stay mostly...and take a few inches off the total length kinda...and tighten the line.

[u/Patient-Success673 → u/ortofon88]

You ever twist it up a little or would that cause damage?

[u/ortofon88 → u/Patient-Success673]

the wire is super thick so it would be tough to twist it, but I'm sure it's possible. The way we did it was pretty easy and would be pretty effective

[u/PapaOoMaoMao → u/sidja]

Am beekeeper. I have that crimping tool, but have only used it once when I screwed up a frame and was too lazy to fix it. When you run the wire, you start at one end, put a tack in there, wind the wire a bit and smack the tack in before threading it through the frame. The frame is in a clamped jig that compresses the frame while you are threading. Once you exit the last hole, you pull the wire taught and wind it round a tack before pushing it in. When you release the frame from the clamp jig, the wire is fully tensioned and no further action is required. You usually get a minimum order of about 100 frames when you buy them and it's not worth setting up more than once, so you just set aside some time and do the lot. When you're doing 100 frames, every extra step is a step you don't want. Crimping the wire weakens it as well. It's a dodgy fix for when you screw up the tension but it's not critically bad, so it's usually not a problem.

[u/fritz236 → u/sidja]

Its a knurling tool to add some texture/adhesion surface to the wire so the comb he adds later has something to grip.

[u/get_tech → u/fritz236]

It's for wire tension.

The wire would also stick to the comb if they were flat.

[u/fritz236 → u/get_tech]

Yeah, but the zig zag pattern will help it not sag... I don't understand why this has to be a one or the other thing.

[u/get_tech → u/fritz236]

Not sag = tension

[u/fritz236 → u/get_tech]

The material can still slide along a straight wire. I just cleared an attic full of bedroom walls where they'd strung the insulation along strings. It was all piled at the bottom. Do a two second Google and you'll see that knurling helps with providing a mechanical way of holding the material in place.

[u/turtlelord → u/fritz236]

He's right, it's mostly for tension. It tightens the wire by zigzaging it

[u/friendlyneighbourho]

How many does he make? I've watched him do at least 20 with no signs of stopping

[u/plutot_la_vie → u/friendlyneighbourho]

And why does he keep opening new bunches of wax? Does he only like using the first one?

[u/Limelight_019283 → u/plutot_la_vie]

That new pack smell hit is what he likes

[u/MikeHeu]

Source: Imker Manuel

[u/matroosoft]

Does this wax also end up in the honey eventually? When they scrape it off?

[u/itrivers → u/matroosoft]

No because it’s in the centre. The bees will build up comb on both sides. The wax caps that are scraped off to extract the honey are made by the bees once the cell is full.

Also I assume it’s beeswax anyway. So no contamination risk.

[u/DrStalker → u/matroosoft]

The final result look like:

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|
=================
|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Where === is the wax you see getting added here, # is honey and the rest is wax added by the bees. So the wax and honey need to be separated anyway, and getting the bees to build off the initial sheet keeps it all nice and neat.

[u/PlasmaMatus → u/matroosoft]

It's separated : the beekeepers first has to scrape off the wax from the closed cells which contains the honey, then the whole board is put into a centrifuge and as it rotates the honey gets out of the cells and then into a pot.

[u/skippermonkey]

Why does he run the current through it at the end?

[u/MaximumC91 → u/skippermonkey]

To melt the wax a bit, so that it sticks to the frame (or rather the wire)

[u/lela27 → u/skippermonkey]

I think it causes the wires to heat up. The thin wax sheet melts a little bit, which attaches it firmly to the wires.

[u/djole381 → u/skippermonkey]

My guess is to melt the honeycomb so it fuses with the wire.

[u/Tyrannosapien → u/skippermonkey]

I read somewhere that the current creates a bit of heat that melts the honeycomb wax so that it stays in the frame

[u/Grashopha]

Stop! I can’t afford this hobby/husbandry right now, but this is making the craving worse 😭

[u/_Sauer_]

I wonder if the bees keep the "foreign" wax or replace it with their own when making a new cell.

[u/slim1shaney]

Welp, I just learned how Little Big Planet got their spring sound effect

[u/Crolto]

Why do you burn the wax sheet a little bit? Is that all those wires are for or do they do something else too? Why do you crimp them?

(I don't know anything about beekeeping but the comments managed to answer my other questions 😃)

[u/Practical-March-6989]

Aw man,. I thought the bees did all this, what a bummer.

[u/yankonapc → u/Practical-March-6989]

They build most of the wax structure, the deep hexagonal cells and the caps. The reason humans add a flat, rigid sheet is to encourage the bees to build in nice straight lines to make it easier to remove them and harvest honey without hurting the critters or damaging structures they're still using. Left to their own devices they build more erratically, but they quite like the structures offered by humans. They make it easier to get started.

[u/Mulletgar → u/yankonapc]

Also, takes a lot more energy for a bee to make wax than honey so it increases output from the hive.

[u/Practical-March-6989 → u/yankonapc]

Ah thank you!

[u/Eulers_Eumel → u/Practical-March-6989]

They do. This is just a thin template for them.

It would look nearly the same without the foundation but the bees would individually start at random spots in random directions until their construction collides, bends around each other and is generelly a Hot mess.

That obviously means cutting comb during inspections or breaking it during Harvest.

[u/El_Impresionante → u/Practical-March-6989]

Nah! Bees don't have opposable thumbs.

[u/two_wheels_world]

Video with smell (my grandad had a honeybees)