Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Wax sheets can be easily damaged, especially when you want to extract the honey.
Wire is usually therefore embedded in the sheet to hold it in the frames and to prevent
damage. In the UK you can buy pre-wired sheets to fix into your frames but, in most
other countries, the frames will have wires on them and you will have to melt the
wax sheets onto them. This is easy and can be accomplished as follows (it sounds
complicated but isn't really). Try it:
1.
Open up your car bonnet (hood) and attach a red wire to the positive terminal
of the battery and a black wire to the negative terminal. (The wires should have
crocodile clips at each end for this purpose and, in fact, can be any colour you
like.)
2.
Attach the other ends to some rubber tubing to stop them touching each other.
3.
Place a wooden board wherever it will sit without moving and place your frame on
it.
4.
Tighten up the wires in the frame so that, if you strum them, they sound like a
guitar.
5.
Hold up the frame and place a wax foundation sheet into it, ensuring that the top
edge goes into the groove in the frame's top bar.
6.
Place the frame horizontally onto the wooden board.
7.
Attach the black wire to one end of the wire frame and hold it in place with a small
tack.
8.
Briefly touch the red wire to the other end and gently rub your hand over the wax
sheet. The sheet will melt on to the wires and you must then immediately remove
the current otherwise you will end up with a load of wax strips.
This all comes with practice. A modification is to have a board with a block fixed to
it. This block should be of just the correct height to stop the wires from melting right
through the wax and out the other side. I have no doubt you will be able to work out the
best way to do this once you've seen everything in action.
You will now have either a load of wax strips or a frame with a wax sheet embedded
with wires. Keep going until you have sufficient to fill the boxes. Keep all the wax strips
because you can use them as starter strips.
