# Rite Cell Foundation



## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I misread the question.


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## JSL (Sep 22, 2007)

First, I am old fashioned and prefer to use wood frames and wax foundation.

Several years ago a friend of mine that also prefers to use wood frames and wax foundation took me out into the bee yard to show me his RiteCell "experiment". I was impressed! All of my other attempts at using plastic foundation like I do wax foundation turned out poorly. Sometimes the bees took it slowly and other times it ended in a big mess with cross comb between the frames. After seeing my friend’s comparison of the different types of foundation I have reluctantly incorporated RiteCell foundation into my colonies. The bees will work it right out of the box almost as well as wax foundation. It is more durable than wax and mice will not chew through it to make a nest in the corner of a box.


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

All I use is rite cell foundation. The bee's do draw it out well, and even better with an extra coating of wax brushed on the foundation. I am new to beekeeping and have not done the wax/wire thing, the closest ive come to anything else is doing a cut out and rubber banding the comb into a frame until the bees brace it up then I removed the banding.

Another good thing about rite cell from what ive heard is it doesnt blow out in the extractors. And when the comb gets old on the frame or wax moths damage the drawn comb, just scrape it off, brush on some new wax and let them draw it out again!

I dont have any personal con's for rite cell, only pro's!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Has any one used, or are you using the deep rite cell foundation from Mann Lake?What are the + or - of the foundation? 

The cell walls are fairly deep, which makes it almost deep enough for a queen to lay in them before they draw them...

Sometimes they are accepted (assuming you have the wax coated ones) well. Occasionally they will try to avoid it and build combs out from the face of it, or fins at right angles to it.

I have a lot and don't use it because it's 5.4mm and I want 4.9.

Rite Cell:
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/RiteCell54Measurment.jpg

PF120:
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/MannLakeFramesPF120-498.jpg

4.9mm wax:
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/Dadant49mmMeasured.JPG

Natural Comb:
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/47mmCombMeasurement.jpg


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## Moon (May 7, 2011)

I have it in my hives this year. I've been bouncing back and forth between deciding whether or not I'm going to use it next year or go to SC. I think I'm going to continue using it next year simply because SC is so controversial and the durability of it. However, the packages I had this last year took forever to draw it out. I think that was in large part my fault though because the bees were left in the packages for an extra week due to my inability to pick them up on time (bloody work) but they barely had two deeps drawn out by August =O

Pro's : The stuff is way durable and easy to manipulate. Once the bees start drawing it out they drew it out with only a few minor snags

Con's: It's not SC


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## NorthernIllinoisPlumber (Aug 17, 2010)

I had great success with it. I even cut strips for comb honey, worked well!


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

Many years ago I bought plastic foundation from every supplier. I tested one-piece foundation/frame and plastic foundation slipped into wood frames with grooved top/bottom bars. Rite Cell and Permadent rated highest of either category.

However, once I coated the plastic foundation with extra melted bees wax, the differences narrowed greatly. Adding melted wax accelerated the acceptance when compared to unwaxed (well, okay, they said it was waxed but that coating was non-existent!). The extra wax supplied the resources that the bees used to start the comb-drawing process.

There are other practices that will make plastic foundation just as effective as wax foundation, irrespective of the manufacturer. PM me for more details.

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## beehonest (Nov 3, 2011)

I have always used wax. But I just got another hive for Christmas to start this spring. It is rite cell, so we will see. That was the only option offered with wood frames on a prebuilt hive. I love Mann Lake though a great company to deal with. Thier comunication is not always great, it never tells you when it ships. But when you start to doubt UPS knocks on your door with your package.


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## canoemaker (Feb 19, 2011)

I like Rite Cell for all the reasons already listed, but also like the way the bottom corners are perforated. If you want to provide communication holes for the bees, you can snap off a little triangle of foundation from the two lower corners. Pretty slick.


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## Davebcrzy (Mar 12, 2011)

I have used natural foundation and rite cell. In my limited experience I have found that the bees draw out the coated rite cell as well as they do natural foundation. My mentor says an added benefit to rite cell is that if wax moths get in your hive you can scrape the wax off the foundation and the bees will clean it and draw it again. However, I had a hive that got wax moths and when I scraped the foundation and replaced it, the bees haven't touched that frame since.


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## Moon (May 7, 2011)

You guys that are responding to this thread that are saying you add an extra coating of wax to the ritecell how much extra wax are you putting on the frame? Obviously you don't want the cells completely filled with wax so are you just lightly brushingmore wax on and how are you going about doing it?


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## NorthernIllinoisPlumber (Aug 17, 2010)

Moon said:


> You guys that are responding to this thread that are saying you add an extra coating of wax to the ritecell how much extra wax are you putting on the frame? Obviously you don't want the cells completely filled with wax so are you just lightly brushingmore wax on and how are you going about doing it?



I never said I do...just put em in there. You can see the wax and smell it on the frame.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

I use a lot of the the Rite Cell foundation in the pre-assembled wooden frames. This is the configuration that I prefer and no problems with acceptance. I do NOT like the PF-100/120 frames. The two problems I have with the PF series is that they are weak and the groves are great for protecting SHB. A medium or deep filled with honey will shear off the top bar ears under even moderate mishandling. Also, I have found they will buckle in the middle in an extractor. Once either of these happen you just throw them away. Give me a wooden frame with plastic foundation.


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

Moon,

I just melted some extra wax I had from a swarm removal and "painted" it on with a cheap paint brush. Basically I just added another layer of wax, not enough to fill the cells (well, some were filled!) and the comparison I had with a frame of rite cell out of the box and the "painted" rite cell foundation was excellent!! They drew out the painted one on both sides well before the plain one was even started. 

PS- The paint brush will get coated with wax that cools, just leave it in the boiler to melt the wax off again, be sure to never turn your back on the melting process, you dont want to start a fire!!


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## AramF (Sep 23, 2010)

plastic foundation seems to be able to handle hot wax being brushed on it without too much deformity. I tried doing the same with Green Drone frames, and they buckle a little, so beware.


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## Lburou (May 13, 2012)

Rite-Cell is what I use, and with a wooden frame -the all plastic frames hide SHB, warp and get brittle in the cold. 

Relative to queen rearing: If your beekeeping plan includes cutting queen cells from a frame, you would do better to go foundationless, which accommodates cutting queen cells much better than from plastic foundation. The other thing not mentioned yet is that you can scrape the comb off rite cell and graft out of the deep cell walls mentioned by Michael Bush. HTH


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## AramF (Sep 23, 2010)

Yes you can graft off the plastic foundation if you have fresh wax cell walls. If you have 2 or more layers of cacoons, not so easy. You can guess how I know that.


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## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

I prefer ritecell foundation in my hives , I do find they build cross comb sometimes , but I just checkerboard the drawn combs with new foundation and they tend to stop it. The queen has actually laid eggs in the foundation when the bees had it for 1 day , I was adding more supers to my hives and had to come back to a particular yard because I needed to add more frames to some hives I was short on and I found that she was up in the 2nd deep laying in the bare foundation ! the bees had started drawing out the comb and she just kept on trucking . I did go back in a week later to see what was going on and it was amazing to see the progress they had made on those ritecell foundations ! I used to use permadent , but not anymore


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