Tip: Removing old black comb from plastic foundation by freezing and bending

[Rob Mathews, 2025 ACBA President]

If you use plastic foundation like me, you've probably had the issue where after a few years, the brood comb gets nasty with old cocoons and such, and you want to remove it and reuse the frames. I've tried all sorts of things: scraping, hot water, putting it in a black plastic bag in the sun, pressure washer. It's really difficult to get it off cleanly.

I finally came up with a method that works, though. You can take the foundation out of the frames and freeze it. Once it's frozen, you bend the plastic while you're pushing the comb off it with a scraper, and almost all of it just comes right off in one piece:

The pieces that come off are incredibly satisfying:

Hope this helps someone (although maybe you're all thinking "duh, of course that's how you do it!").

[Hami Archer]

Thanks a lot for share this.

Regards 

On Mar 8, 2025, at 7:43 PM, Rob Mathews, 2025 ACBA President <r...@tigertech.com> wrote:

If you use plastic foundation like me, you've probably had the issue where after a few years, the brood comb gets nasty with old cocoons and such, and you want to remove it and reuse the frames. I've tried all sorts of things: scraping, hot water, putting it in a black plastic bag in the sun, pressure washer. It's really difficult to get it off cleanly.

I finally came up with a method that works, though. You can take the foundation out of the frames and freeze it. Once it's frozen, you bend the plastic while you're pushing the comb off it with a scraper, and almost all of it just comes right off in one piece:

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The pieces that come off are incredibly satisfying:

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Hope this helps someone (although maybe you're all thinking "duh, of course that's how you do it!").

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<IMG_3673.jpeg>

<IMG_3675.jpeg>

[J R]

- I tried pressure washer work ok if water is warm  , extremely messy 3500 psi time consuming 

- I tried the chemical way,bleach and lye samething disposing of the brew is challenging work  mediocre beside you have to worry if someone will touch it .

- i tried compressed air work ok very noisy and tedious ,   Need to be at 80degrees 

-i tried spatula and over coated with wax under the sun 80 degres , work very well , shortest cleaning time so far .

-i tried the regulat way , frames are on the landfill .

- I was going back to the wax frames long process and expensive .

-I will try your way and see how it work ! 

Anyone else has experiment on cleaning them ? 

- For the Anti plastic beekeepers , i harvested the exact same amount of honey weight per frame on plastic , many time more than on bee wax foundation ,

 you need to over coat the plastic with wax which make it easier to Clean by the way , 

Do not use those cheap stinky frames you find on the net . Bees will not accept them . I use Pierco ! 

Once decaped and extracted i put the frames right back in the beehives within a month or so depending the season they are allreay full and ready for extraction . Because the bee did  not have to rebuilt the combs simply repair them . 

Equal 3 to 4 harvest a year ,thanks to micro climate and back yard gardeners 

Sorry for spelling errors blame AI

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 9, 2025, at 12:39 AM, Hami Archer <hami....@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks a lot for share this.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/the-alameda-county-beekeepers-association/98E5A961-00B1-4C0E-B153-B4FD4F2E15BC%40gmail.com.

[john cobb]

If the dark comb frames are suitable for swarm traps, I would be happy to swap them for new foundations.  I can use a 12-15.

Cheers

John Cobb

cobb...@gmail.com

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[Mimi]

I leave it out on hot summer days for ~1 hr then use spatula to remove once wax is soft.  The bees don’t seem to mind bits of wax or pollen leftover and will clean the rest. 

I’ve never tried freezing frame but will do so and see who that compares.  

Mimi 

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 9, 2025, at 11:01 AM, 'J R' via The Alameda County Beekeepers Association <the-alameda-county-b...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[Robert L Mathews]

On Mar 9, 2025, at 11:00 AM, 'J R' via The Alameda County Beekeepers Association <the-alameda-county-b...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

you need to over coat the plastic with wax which make it easier to Clean by the way

Yep, I never have any problems because I just go overboard and wax them to cover the plastic completely:

The bees just think it's wax.

If you're wondering whether you can over-wax your frames: no, you won't, because they will shape everything you use into comb cells. I found that out from this fantastic video where someone actually experimented with it:

-- 

Robert L Mathews

[Robert L Mathews]

On Mar 9, 2025, at 12:37 PM, Mimi <mimi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I’ve never tried freezing frame but will do so and see who that compares.  

It's possible that the key thing is the bending of the frames, rather than the freezing. I'd be interested to hear what happens if someone leaves them out in the sun and then bends them -- maybe the same thing happens where it separates cleanly, entirely due to the bending.

-- 

Robert L Mathews

[Ronni Brega]

I leave the old combs in a hive box and let the wax moths clean them off. 

Ronni 

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[J R]

I am not taking my chances with

Moths , at the end I lost that beehive to a couples hundreds maggots and the honey that was immediately the frames .

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 9, 2025, at 1:52 PM, Ronni Brega <oakto...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Mimi Edwards]

Ronni - doesn’t that just increase the wax moth population and chances of moths inside your weaker hives?

Mimi 

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[gmau...@earthlink.net]

Robert... Absolutely brilliant!  Thank you VERY much for sharing...  Greg

[Robin Chatham]

What's the zoom address for the board meeting?

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