What i was getting at was with the plain wax foundation, you use wire for support. Mine didn't give much support, at all. Last year was my first year and I did not know much about anything. Kind of figured it out as I went. When doing and inspection, last year, I had a section of foundation fall out of the frame. Not a pleasant experiance.
Oh yeah, not good at all. After you weave it through, just make sure that the wire is guitar string tight and you should be good.
I like Pierco products, don't get me wrong, but the cost is high starting out. I can save a few dollars with Duragilt and wood frames. I hate to cut corners there but you got to do it where you can.
I use the Pierco as a starter foundation for regressing my bees to small cell. The nice thing about the Pierco is that you can't damage it. Just let them rebuild if you need them to start over. The Pierco I got was waxed. I didn't add anything to it and they took to it right off.
It looks like Duragilt will offer the same strength as Pierco and easy to install. Plus,I won't have to coat the foundation with wax. Another expence that I won't have.
Yes, it is strong. The downside is that once they build on it, you can't scrape the wax off and have them restart it like you can with the Pierco. Also, Pierco has a bit smaller cells so, like I stated above, helps start aid in regression. Even if you don't plan to regress, the size is still better than the large cell size.
Next year, I will have some wax to use, I hope.
If you want a lot of wax for making candles, soap, etc., I wouldn't use Duragult or Pierco. Personally, I would go with unwired wax foundation in the supers, starter strips, or foundationless.
Anything that I could have harvested was used to support my weaker colonies through the winter.
Good thinking.
Thanks again for the replies and lets hope for a good season.
No problem. I hope the extra stuff above helps too.
