# Small Cell Foundation



## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

Is this what you are looking for? https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=81 The words "medium brood foundation" refers to the weight or thickness of the foundation, which is slightly more than regular foundation and is *without wires. *If you use only strips, they may not build it out all "small cell". There are two Dadant suppliers in California.


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## Tuttle (Jul 4, 2009)

Awesome, I had looked at that before and disregarded it for medium frames, thanks for pointing out that referred to the thickness.


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## LenInNorCal (Feb 28, 2009)

Bees will make small cell & foundation!


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## hipbee (Sep 11, 2009)

Fat Bee Man in GA makes SC foundation with his own chemical free beeswax, and its the thickest foundation Ive ever seen. I forget his website exactly just google fat bee man or dixie bee supply. he also has videos on youtube on how he installs it with fishing line


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

don (fatbeeman) is excelent (we are very happy with the 40+ we purchased from him)...but a few things.

1. he does use fgmo and thymol. these things should be kept out of the hive, and are easily absorbed by wax (ie, it will be present in his foundation).

2. the fishing line thing is a waste of time and expensive foundation. i say this from experience of dealing with frames don setup this way, and those that i tried myself. frame wire embedded works much better (i use a soldering iron that has never been used for anything else).

deknow


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## brac (Sep 30, 2009)

FGMO? what is that?


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

FGMO= food grade mineral oil

btw, i've got a good friend who used to work in textile mill in dexter.

deknow


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

He also uses boric acid for shb.


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## hipbee (Sep 11, 2009)

darn I said chemical free I was mistaken, at least he dosent use all of the commercial insecticides and stuff..... De know what else can a fellow do Im still having varroa problems and my bees are building mostly 4.9 cells, ive been using powderd sugar for the past 3 weeks but my mite counts are still well I lose count at 100 and that dosnt cover half of my sticky board


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## hipbee (Sep 11, 2009)

oh yeah I dont have the time for the fishing line either but I havent had any trouble without using it or wires or anything


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## mythomane (Feb 18, 2009)

If you want to go clean and have mites building up, the safest way is to break up the brood cycle. Split them up and recombine later. You are up against it with winter on the way, however.


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## Myron Denny (Sep 27, 2009)

My question is how do you measure small cell?
Is it 4.9 cells per inch?
or is it 4.9 mm across each cell?
or some other way?


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

it is the inside measurement from wall to wall


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

And since it's very difficult to measure just one cell, measure across 10 cells. It should be 49 mm, or 4.9 cm.
Actually, when measuring cells, you measure from point to same point. That is, if you start with the inside wall, you measure to the next inside wall.


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## Myron Denny (Sep 27, 2009)

I checked some of my Kelley wax foundation, this is the count the way Barry said to do it:
(if they taught me metric in school I don't remember it, I'm almost 74)

The ruler I used was metric 51 = 2" 

120 - Kelley deep brood 8 1/2" X 16 3/4" 10 cell count was 52 

123 - Kelley shallow super 4 3/4" X 16 3/4" 10 cell count was the same 52.

So, is this Kelley wax foundation 5.2 ?


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## denny (Aug 2, 2006)

Here's a link to a picture on Michael Bush's website showing the 4.9-5.0 cell size measurement of Mann Lake's PF-100...using the Millimeter side of ruler.

http://www.bushfarms.com/images/MannLakeFramesPF100-498.jpg


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