so today we're going to talk about
better comb in a kit
that you can get from better b where you
can put everything together yourself
this is synthetic pre-drawn beeswax
better comb sends frames and they sell
them pre-wired but they've recently ran
out of stock on those so one option is
to get a kit from better b
and it's the better comb complete
unassembled kit
now i paid full price for this i did not
get any kickbacks to get no kickbacks by
sharing it with you
i just want to talk to you about it and
demonstrate how to wire your own frames
without any jigs or fancy stuff
the kit includes that uh
wire crimper it includes a roll of b
wire which we just showed which is good
for about 50 deep or 100 medium frames
you also get that eyelet punch and the
eyelets that come with it
you get a lot of eyelets and of course
these little nails two of those for each
frame and that's how you're going to
terminate your wires
and then we've got nails of course that
hold all your frames together
so you can glue them and then nail them
or you can just glue them with some
really good
glue like i do you also get this wire
embedding device you do not get a
battery with it
so you can hook this up to a 12-volt
battery system which i will do here to
demonstrate it
i also got my own needle-nose pliers the
kind of teeth on it so you can really
grip the wire
and pull it tight this is my great
grandfather's
finishing hammer so i like to use that
too
anyway so here are the frames uh again
they come disassembled so you have to
glue them up
i glued them up myself and i found that
i can get away without even putting
brads or nails in them this is my
14th year of beekeeping and
i've seen no difference between those
that get glued and nailed and those that
just get glued
also if you're putting better comb in
these you got to mark each frame
top bar to make sure that you don't
confuse them with other
comb because you're not going to be able
to tell the difference once it's in the
beehive
so these are also grooved these frames
are multi-purpose not just for better
comb
so you can put plastic foundation in
them but i'm doing this
to pre-wire and of course use the wire
in
the better comb this is a premium wood
glue type bond 2
water resistant interior exterior and
it's approved for exposure to food
preparation surfaces
so not bad for your beehive
and again i just used a quick grip clamp
here and put that on it just so it'll
spool out i also
clipped the bitter end of the wire to
one of the grounding clips over there
just to hold it keep it from running
free on you
this is a 2x4 nice and dirty from a
chicken coop
that runs all the way to the floor and i
use this kind of as a wooden anvil
so i can put my frames on that and tap
in those eyelets
and not vibrate the table like crazy so
we're going to demonstrate the whole
thing
you're going to see so here we go let's
get the frame up here
and we'll get the little eyelets
and of course the eyelet punch that
comes with it and the first thing i'm
going to do is nail these little
germination tacks that go in
just nail it down enough so that there's
clearance so i can wrap the wires around
them
it's pretty simple no jigs no fancy
stuff you can just do it by hand
of course you can see that this is
expertly done
a few taps with a hammer get that in
there next step is going to be of course
to put those eyelets in with the eyelet
punch
and here we go i'm not going to make you
watch me do every one
we're going to knock out 10 frames here
and get
the better comb in them so we can have
hot standby
for any swarms that might be coming
around this time of year
and i'm a believer in better comb and
how it works originally they had us do
these with toothpicks
we have decided collectively that that
is kind of a fail
and toothpicks do not support your
better comb well enough
it is a synthetic pre-drawn comb that is
made out of material that is almost
chemically identical to actual
bee's wax but it is not beeswax so you
have to label it you have to keep it
separate
and you of course don't want to eat it
for chunk honey and things like that
so mark the frames that's all i'm going
to say about that
and these eyelets are going to give you
a guide to run your wire through so it
does not get hung up or
cut into the wooden side bars here
and we have four on each side these are
the deep frames this kit
cost me 109.95
so it included enough wire for 50 deep
or 100 frames
uh the eyelet's enough for 20d for 40
medium frames
one pound of frame nails it's enough to
assemble a hundred frames
and a hundred five eighths inch wedge
nails
those are used to anchor the wire on
both ends and there's enough of those
for 50 frames
and a cardboard shim of course also so
you can put the stuff
in and the wire crimper eyelet punch
and this included the 10 pack of
unassembled groove top frames
so you can get these deep or medium i'm
using deeps because
when i'm setting up a brand new swarm
i'm going to put them in a deep box and
i want them this time of year especially
because it is september 5th
i want any bees going into a box that
have every advantage they can possibly
get
uh synthetic better comb has been the
best way i found to get them going
now if you already have used comb that
has full deep drawn cells
use those but these are nice and clean
there are no pesticides in them there's
no residue from other beehives we don't
have to worry about passing on
any kind of germs bacteria
any potential disease from other hives
these are absolutely clean and the bees
take to them
right away so all i do is draw it all
the way through there
again no jigs nothing like that i wrap
the end around that pin
what they call wedge nails and then i
just take the other end with my nice
grippy needle
nose pliers pliers there i pull it tight
and then i run that around the other
wedge nail and it actually snaps right
off just from twirling it there
and then we're gonna see how tight they
are
so you can hear that bottom one there is
a little loose
so what am i going to do about that well
i'm going to use the wire crimper that
came with it
tightens things right up really quick
you can even use that on old frames that
have wire reinforcement going through
them you can tighten them up
over and over if they're ever loose
there you go
now we're nice and tight and we're ready
to embed them
and that better come
so we just go over the parts that are
included again they give this little bag
of eyelets now i put these
in plastic peanut butter jars so i'm
dumping everything together that goes
together so i don't have to go hunting
around
later don't forget also to drop your
eyelet punch in that same
plastic jar if you're going to be
organized about it
sometimes i like to use tackle boxes and
things like that to organize
things but these little plastic jars
allow me to attach them underneath of
shelves
so half ounce of the eyes one pound of
inch and a quarter
nails that's to put your frames together
i did not use these for this
demonstration they are galvanized
and these are the jars just going to put
them away i'm just showing you how i
organize my things
so there they go here are the eyelets
next time we need to do this i know
right where to go to grab them
so nice and tidy now we're going to open
up the better comb
it comes in boxes of 10 and they've come
a long way
actually even in the way they ship them
because the initial ones came through
they had nothing between
the comb so it actually stuck together i
used to end up
tearing them apart a little bit getting
them away from each other but
now they put a nice wax paper material
between
each and every cone
so there you have it a 10 pack so we're
going to put 10 of them together
and again as i said have them on hot
standby because if you're installing a
package which you wouldn't be this time
of year
this is for swarms now notice these
cells are angled
you want them to angle down towards the
center you do not want them like this
angling down away from the center
because the bees won't use them if this
is
the angle that goes up so you want it
like this
like a v when they go in plus the sides
are tapered here
and that will allow you to insert it
into the frame so whether the frames
that you've put together or those
provided by better be that are complete
it's all going to be the same
and of course that's wire and better and
when i use this hooked up to my charger
here
i could be embedding these for hours on
end this charger
dsr pro series psj2212 is the model
this thing works fantastic it's also
good for oxalic acid vaporization while
we're at it
so here we go we're going to embed the
wires into this
better comb and make sure that you're
making contact with the outermost
wires if you don't put your conductors
on the outermost wires guess what
they won't heat up and it won't sink
into the
better cone for example see the end
that's facing us here
if you put it on those two wires there
then the outermost wires won't heat up
and won't sink in they'll stay on top
so there we go nice and quick embedded
those wires
right into the better cone and again
just reminding you mark them distinctly
so that even
years from now you're going to know
which ones have the better comb in them
because you cannot sell or advertise
that
as actual beeswax even though
chemically very very similar to the
exact composition of the wax the bees
make themselves
so here we go i'm just going to embed a
bunch of them so you can see it over and
over here really quick
you want to wait till the heat up there
is a cardboard shim that matches
underneath of the better comb and that
allows it to push up
just the right amount you want to push
the wires in
until they embed themselves right down
to that center what would be a wax
foundation piece in the middle
make sure they make contact with that
the beep on my
12 volt system there is just to let me
know that it's still on
and i can do this over and over just
keep going i won't bore you to death
with it but i want you to see it happen
several times never touch the wires with
your bare hands of course when there's
electricity contacting it
you can get a nice zap they also heat up
pretty good so keep your hands off of
them
just make sure it's all centered now we
found out if you don't put
wire in this better comb then it tends
to sag on hot days
even in the northeastern united states i
had some of this sag a little
those who live in the southern states
places where it gets significantly
hotter
desert southwest places like that you do
not want to be using deep frames of
better comb
without wire reinforcement doing it
yourself is going to save you quite a
bit of money
plus there is the additional problem
with the fact that better
b doesn't even have the pre-wired frames
in stock that's why i decided to do this
video to show you that there's a kit
that you can do it yourself and that
once you get the materials
the wire the eyelets the frame nails the
wedge nails the wire crimper the eyelet
punch and all the other stuff you need
then all you have to do is buy the
wooden frames put them together yourself
you'll save money
and it's very easy to do then you can
store them away
and have them whenever you're doing
maintenance on a hive maybe you're going
to pull out old beeswax you want to
substitute new
i don't fill entire boxes with this when
i'm starting out a package or hiving a
swarm
i only put three or four frames of it in
there to get them going
then you can leave the outermost frames
with acorn heavy wax
frames or you can do foundationless
whatever you'd like to do
because once the bees are established
they have the numbers to do it all
here's 10 frames nicely done sitting
inside this hive butler tote which holds
them
really nice so i can just carry this out
in the b yard with me when i'm doing
inspections if i'm pulling a frame or if
i'm installing something
now i'm just showing you really quickly
this is september 5th
i had to add emergency boxes to a lot of
these hives because
everyone seems to be in a state of rapid
build up right now
these bees are bringing in pollen like
crazy there's a population explosion
going on
these are saskatras bees the other thing
is i recently collected
a swarm on september 1st this is just
the fifth and i want you to notice they
are bringing in pollen
already and i attribute that completely
to the fact
that i installed several frames of
better comb
in this hive with this swarm and they
are kicking it in
fifth gear right now lots of brood
lots of eggs which means that this queen
went to laying within the first couple
of days of being hived in this box
so things are looking great you want to
speed things up get better comb
you want to be able to do a lot of it
for a very low price very easy
get the kit thanks for watching have a
great day
