H'ive been framed

Even in the crazy Hollywood, rock'n'roll, showbiz life of a bee keeper there are ordinary tasks to be done.  During the winter one of them is sorting out the frames in the hives and either replacing them or putting new foundation in.

In most 'box' types of hives there are two types of frame; the larger brood frames that are in the brood box at the base of the hive and smaller super frames in the supers that are stacked on top of the brood box. The supers have the honey we take.

Super frame

Brood frame

Brood frames can get very dirty with the build up of faeces and  pupae chrysalis' and often the wax in supper frames can be damaged when honey is extracted.
The frames themselves are fairly simple things and as they are made in their tens of thousands, its not worth making them yourself..
A pack of 10 brood frames and wax would cost about £25 but half that if you join the Bedfordshire Beekeepers Association who have a trading scheme that means you can buy standard items like frames, foundation and jars much more cheaply.
'Natural' beeks will often not use wax foundation at all and leave the bees to make the comb themselves and this is often the approach used with Top Bar Hives.

Things look good for the survival rates of the colonies and if they all have a good honey year I will need quite a few supers and also I've been making small nuc hives that need brood frames, so recently I've spent a lot of time making up frames and here is a video on how I do it.