Honey Bee World

I recently added a super to a very busy hive that I assumed needed more room. I used brand new foundation. Upon retuning after several days , the super I added had only the wooden frames, no foundation. It was all gone. I never experienced this before. Can anyone explain? Thanks

Wax foundation? There was no trace left?

Location?

No trace of any wax. Super under the empty one full of capped honey. I'm located in Quogue NY. Out on the end of Long Island

My guess is that you thought there was foundation in that super and put one you had not yet finished on the hive. There is no other plausible explanation that I can think of.

Hello Clammer,

Maybe try to update your location so it appears in your personal info on the right. If you just want to say 'Long Island, NY' that's fine, but then we know where you are and don't ask a thousand question that don't bring anything.

Anyway, this 'missing foundation' thing has happened to me this year too. We are talking about the wax on plastic foundation on previously drawn comb, I hope. I found lots of shredded wax on the bottom board of one hive, B1, in this case while B2 had nice brood, stored honey and pollen. Only several frames had the wax removed and I know that it had could drawn comb coming out of the winter with honey. My apiarist I use for info and help thought I could have a mouse in the brood box, but no sign off it, no mouse droppings or such. This was in early April with a 3/8x1" reducer. Now the bees have rebuild all frames and all is good.

Who knows why they sometimes do what they do. I have given up on explaining everything since they are doing it for millions of years and have well survived.

Cheers, Joerg

"Anyway, this 'missing foundation' thing has happened to me this year too. We are talking about the wax on plastic foundation on previously drawn comb, I hope."

When Clammer wrote "only wooden frames" I reckon that is exactly what he meant, Joerg. Which makes Allen's conclusion the best guess as Clammer has not returned to clarify. Maybe a "senior moment" in figuring which box was put where, I reckon

Anyway, just reading through some older threads I found this and offer what you see with plastic cored foundation is not at all new news, at least not to me. Back when I did use it the answer was "dip all your frames before
using".. figure why I and many others ceased using the stuff.
I did keep using plastic end bars for a while but in the end the number of frames not filled to the bar- dipping the bars made little consistent difference - became a problem so I ceased using those also.
Hope that helps you out some.

Cheers.

Bill