Content
Foundation is of great importance in beekeeping, as it is the basis for the construction of honeycombs by bees. The quantity and quality of honey largely depends on the quality of the foundation. Today, many beekeepers know how to make this product themselves. There are several types of foundation that you can make yourself at home.
What is foundation in beekeeping
Foundation is a sheet of wax in which hexagonal shaped indentations are pressed. Recesses are necessary for the rapid construction of hundreds by insects. The foundation is attached to a special frame, which is subsequently placed in the hive.
What is wax and why is it needed?
The main purpose of the sheets of foundation is to relieve the burden on the bee colony. The insects do not need to build a base for the honeycomb, as the beekeeper places ready-made wax sheets into the hive.
Natural foundation is the basis for honeycombs, which bees use as storehouses for honey and as a “nursery” for breeding.If you do not install foundation in the hive, hardworking insects will build honeycombs on their own, however, this will negatively affect the amount of honey, since construction takes a lot of time and effort from the bees.
Artificial foundation plays a very important role and is intended for:
- Expansion of the nest of a bee colony.
- Increasing honey production by the family.
- Normal formation of a bee swarm with the onset of spring.
Bees make honeycombs using honey and pollen as building materials. Man went further and used his own technology to make honeycombs.
Types of foundation
Today, beekeepers use foundation made with their own hands from natural and artificial materials. Ideally, the honeycomb base should consist of only pure white wax. It is environmentally friendly, melts easily and leaves no residue at all. Honeycombs made from natural wax have many advantages: they are easy and convenient to work with, the wax is plastic and melts at a low temperature.
The main disadvantage of natural wax is that wax is a very soft and plastic material that requires special storage conditions and careful handling. Natural wax sheets cannot be reused.
Artificial foundation is made from special plastic. It has some advantages over wax:
- Lasts much longer.
- The sheets can be used many times.
- Less labor, time and money.
- The plastic sheet is much stronger than the wax sheet and is almost not deformed during use.
- Artificial sheets, like wax sheets, can be made independently.
- A plastic sheet is easier and more convenient to store, since it does not break, does not bend and is not afraid of elevated temperatures.
In addition to the advantages, artificial wax for bees also has several disadvantages:
- The foundation needs constant inspection and treatment against various kinds of parasites and diseases. This should be done 3-4 times per season.
- Before attaching the sheet to the frame and placing it in the hive, a thin layer of wax must be applied to the sheet, which takes time.
- If a sheet becomes damaged, it cannot be repaired and must be replaced with a new one.
Today there is no reliable data on how bees perceive plastic foundation. In general, the use of artificial materials in beekeeping is undesirable.
How to make foundation
Few beekeepers can boast that they make the foundation for their hives themselves. The lion's share of beekeeping needs is provided by enterprises processing wax materials. In the process of making foundation, the raw material is melted and poured into special rotating drums. The mixed hot wax mass is fed to rollers, from which finished plates emerge with embossed hexagonal recesses. At home, foundation is made in several ways: using foundation rollers or a special press.
Rollers for making foundation
They are a fairly simple but effective device for making wax with your own hands at home.
The simplest hand rollers consist of:
- Two engraved shafts through which wax is passed. They give the sheet the necessary relief; more often they are made of strong hardened steel.The corrugated surface is treated with special polymer compounds to prevent the wax from sticking.
- Two gears with which the rollers are driven.
- Several adjusting bolts, the purpose of which is to set the required distance between the rollers (adjusting the sheet thickness).
- The base on which this entire simple structure is attached.
In the process of producing foundation, both finished sheets purchased from the manufacturer and material of your own production can be passed through hand rollers. Making a sheet from wax is not difficult. The easiest way is to immerse a sheet of plywood or glass of the required size into a container with molten raw materials. After the wax has cooled, it is easily separated from the base. As a rule, in order to obtain a sheet of the required thickness, the base has to be dipped into wax several times.
Another, more civilized method that allows you to get foundation of the required thickness the first time involves the use of special rollers with smooth shafts. A heated block of wax is passed through them and a finished sheet is obtained at the output.
How to make rollers for making foundation
Homemade hand rollers are a convenient and practical thing that does not require electricity. The simplest machine for making foundation consists of two shafts, clamps, feed rollers, and a chain drive. All this is attached to the main frame.
Making rollers with your own hands is not an easy task, but if you have the necessary skills and tools, you can save from 20,000 rubles (the cost of a factory model). During production, you can use ready-made drawings or make your own. The drawings must clearly depict the operation of all moving parts.
An approximate procedure for making rollers is as follows:
- Installation of the frame. It can be made from a pipe, a massive profile, etc.
- Installation of a U-shaped profile, which acts as a vertical support for the mechanism.
- A deforming structural element is installed in the upper part. After this, the part is secured with a threaded clamp.
- Installing the chain drive on the sprockets, tensioning the chain, testing the chain travel, installing a handle for rotating the chain drive.
- Manufacturing of shafts. It is recommended to use hardened steel as a material.
- Formation of the relief surface of the rollers.
- Manufacturing of a mechanism for adjusting the gap between the shafts.
- Fastening the rollers to the frame using rolling bearings.
How to make foundation for bees at home
To begin, the rollers are placed in a container with a separation solution. The liquid prevents hot wax from sticking to the rollers and promotes the high-quality formation of hexagonal recesses on the wax sheet. The solution is usually made by beekeepers themselves. The recipe is very simple - you use either liquid honey or a solution of 1 liter of water, liquid soap (about 100 g) and 2 teaspoons of glycerin.
The process of making foundation proceeds as follows: a sheet of wax is placed in a container with a solution so that it is held on the surface, and it is carefully directed towards the rollers. Next, they begin to slowly turn the roller handle away from themselves and pass the sheet of wax through the shafts. The surface of the wax sheet passed through the rollers is covered with hexagonal depressions.
During operation, you need to ensure that the working surface of the rollers is constantly moistened with the separating solution. The finished foundation is dried, after which it can be attached to a frame and installed in the hive. After finishing work, wash the rollers with warm water and dry. The instrument must be stored at above-zero temperatures in a dry room.
Foundation press
This is a fairly simple device with which you can obtain a limited amount of the finished product (the average productivity of a hand press is no more than 10 sheets per hour). Therefore, in large apiaries, the use of a press is impractical. The principle of operation of the device is similar to a waffle iron - the press consists of two halves with grooved internal parts. The factory press consists of two heavy plates, usually made of aluminum. They are connected to each other with a small gap, which is equal to the thickness of the sheet - from 0.2 to 0.6 mm. Sometimes beekeepers manage to convert old waffle irons into foundation presses, fixing silicone matrices for foundation inside.
Press for making foundation with your own hands
Despite its modest productivity, this type of foundation production machine is still consistently popular among beekeepers.Unfortunately, there are no domestically produced presses for sale, and the price of foreign tools goes through the roof for 50,000 rubles. For this money you can buy good rollers from a Russian or Ukrainian manufacturer. A simple press can be assembled independently without any problems or costs. For this you will need:
- Beeswax.
- Silicone for the mold. Any non-toxic variety of silicone or synthetic raw material used to make molds will do.
- Two wooden plates, fastening elements for the plates.
- Foundation sheet – 1 piece.
First of all, take one wooden plate and a ready-made sheet of foundation, and apply a layer of silicone to it. The silicone must be very carefully smoothed over the surface of the wax sheet so that all the cells are filled. Then silicone is applied to the plate itself and smoothed out thoroughly. Next, the foundation sheet is covered with a second layer of silicone, smoothed out, and connected to a wooden plate with the silicone-coated side.
As a result, the reverse side of the sheet remains clean, as does the second wooden plate. They are also treated with silicone in the same way.
The first layer of silicone is carefully smoothed over the surface, after applying the second layer, both wooden plates are connected to each other so that the wax sheet is between them.
Now you can attach metal loops to the wood-wax “sandwich” and wait until the silicone hardens completely. You can speed up this process by placing the structure in the oven and keeping it for some time at a temperature of 70-100 °C. Once the silicone is sufficiently strong, you can open the plates, attach the handle and additional side limit plates.For ease of use, you also need a tank into which excess wax will drain.
How to make wax on your press yourself
Working with the press is very simple: first, melted wax is evenly poured onto the lower wooden plate with a grooved silicone surface and pressed with the upper plate.
The remaining frozen wax on the edges of the plates can be cut off with a spatula. After this, the plates are unclenched, wait until the wax has completely hardened, and carefully remove the finished sheet.
To prevent the wax from sticking to the silicone, it is recommended to lubricate the matrix with a solution of laundry soap. However, as practice shows, sometimes bees build very poorly on foundation sheets that have traces of soap solution on them.
The result is a light, translucent corrugated sheet of fairly high quality. The only possible drawback of this design is that the edges of the hexagonal cells may be slightly less pronounced, which has virtually no effect on the construction of honeycombs by bees. Of course, this description of the wax production process is very superficial. In fact, every good beekeeper has his own secrets for making high-quality wax: special preparation of wax, its repeated melting in wax refinery and in a water bath, dehydration, heating the press plates to a certain temperature, etc.
It is also worth considering the process of manufacturing plastic foundation in a press. In fact, it is not much different from making wax from natural material.You will need:
- Silicone (as a plastic substitute) and hardener for silicone.
- Spatula, tape.
- Actually, the press.
The workflow is as follows:
In a separate container, silicone and hardener are mixed in the required proportions. Using a spatula or knife, silicone is applied in an even layer to the matrix, after which it is pressed tightly on top with the press lid. After the silicone has hardened, the finished sheet is removed from the press and kept for some time until the artificial foundation has completely hardened.
Melt wax is applied to the silicone with a soft brush or roller. You can also dip the artificial foundation into melted wax - it will be faster.
Products made from silicone and other form-forming synthetic substances last quite a long time, and silicone matrices in a homemade press will last more than one season. The only condition is not to overheat the mold. Thus, using a press of even such a primitive design, it is possible to provide a small apiary with the necessary amount of natural, high-quality foundation.
Conclusion
Do-it-yourself foundation can be made by any beekeeper who has the desire and enough time for this. This is mainly done by amateur beekeepers who keep a small number of hives. They can afford to recycle excess wax in order to save money and obtain a high-quality natural product. Some farms produce colored wax. It is used to make natural colorful candles for sale and for interior decoration.People who keep large apiaries simply do not have time for this, and they buy foundation from trusted suppliers.
