Another reason I don't like plastic foundation

I am trying to be ecologically responsible and I sure don't want to burn plastic foundation. I had probably 10 - 15 boxes of frames which were full of wax moths and I didn't want to use them for honey because they were from deadouts and were too dark or moldy or full of dead bees. I wanted to burn the frames because I didn't want to scrape the plastic and reuse it because I am transitioning to all foundationless frames. I also didn't want to set the whole frames out for trash because it seemed like a lot to put in the landfill, and the bees seem to like those piles, and the trash pick-up folks don't really appreciate that. So, I piled all the frames in my mini-truck and parked by our bonfire pit. I popped out the foundation and threw the frames in the burn pile. Here is my pile of plastic foundation. Notice the black piece on the bottom right of the picture.The small brownish area is where the bees drew out the small amount of wax that was on the coated foundation, then quit because they would have had to make more wax to cover the rest of the frame. This illustrates how plastic foundation really doesn't "save" the bees any work or nectar for honey. Of course drawn comb of any sort does save the bees work because the wax is already made.

So, the other problem with plastic foundation, or plastic frames - there is one of those in there - is proper disposal when its usable life is done. I had a few frames with wax foundation. I was able to just toss the whole frame in the burn pile. Wax is a good fire starter. Some of the frames were foundationless. Those, I just ripped the comb out of, put the comb in the burn pile and scraped them a little and they were ready for re-use. I didn't bother saving the frames that had foundation because of all the work it would take to re-use them. I would have to scrape them completely out, then, if I wanted to use them as foundationless frames, I would have to glue in a comb guide of some sort. Since I buy frames in bulk for $.87 each, I am sorry to say it isn't worth the effort for me.

This was all part of a long overdue cleanup operation of my bee equipment. Many people have asked if I have used equipment to sell. Now I have an answer and it is yes, or actually some of it I will just give away because it is really only worthy of the burn pile. I will put in my next email what I have and what is for sale and what is take it if you want it or it gets burned.