In this No Nonsense Beekeeping episode, Laurence Edwards of Black Mountain Honey revisits a single frame of wax foundation he installed in a strong UK colony during the first week of October (around 27 September). Over the subsequent four weeks he continued feeding the bees and split the brood, then returns to the hive to show the frame’s transformation. The foundation is fully drawn, surrounded by a ring of capped stores and a ring of open stores, with a central area packed with brood. Notably, no drone cells are present. Edwards explains that adding foundation at this time yields high‑quality worker comb, prevents the colony from allocating space to drone comb in spring, and supports rapid colony buildup. He addresses criticism he received on social media, emphasizing that his advice is specific to UK conditions and encouraging beekeepers to try the technique. The video concludes with a call to subscribe and a reminder to feed colonies as needed.
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4 weeks ago, the last week of October, I added a frame of foundation into the colonies over here. In this video, I'm going to show you that exact same frame, show you what the bees have done with it. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. If you rewind 4 weeks, you will remember I put a single frame of wax foundation Into a colony, I split the brood, I continued feeding. I got loads of stick on Facebook saying that's definitely not what you should do, can't do that over here. And fair enough, I hold my hands up and say the advice wasn't meant for people around the world. This was specifically within the UK. However, a lot of people said to me, you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't be doing this, that's the wrong thing to do. I fought my corner as best as I possibly could, but how much better is it for me to go back look into the colony and to show you what the bees have done with that frame of foundation. So I'll get my bee suit on, I'll get over to the bees, and I'll let them do the talking. So let's take a look inside this colony then and see what that frame of foundation is looking like after 4 weeks of it going in. The colony's big, the colony's strong, the weather's been nice, the feeders are on. Let's see what they've turned that wax foundation into after 4 weeks. So this is the frame of foundation that I put in 4 weeks ago. And as you can see, not only is it drawn out, it's got a beautiful ring of capped stores, beautiful ring of open stores, and then loads and loads of brood in the center as well. But guess what? There is not a single drone cell anywhere to be seen. How good is that? This was the reason that I did this manipulation, because I wanted to get nicely drawn out Fresh wax foundation cells, no drone cells, 100% worker. I did that the first week of October. People told me I was crazy, but I'm showing you the evidence. It works, and it works really well. Really good quality brood in the middle there. Good quality queen. She has packed that out very nice. I'm really pleased to see that. But don't let anybody tell you you can't add frames of foundation the first week of October. Well, you've still got a little bit of time to feed as well. The bees will make good use of that. They'll draw it out, they'll use it as stores, they'll use it to rear brood, and you end up with superior drawn combs at the end of the year. So there we go. I bet you can't believe the work that they have put in over the past 4 weeks. That frame of foundation was put in around the 27th of September, so pretty much first week of October. It's now the back end of October. And they have turned that foundation, they've drawn it out, they've put capped stores into it, it's got open stores into it, the queen's laid in it, the eggs have gone to larva, have gone to capped brood, and then they started to emerge. All of that has happened in 4 weeks, and the big benefit, the big bonus that you get from doing it at this time of the year— there wasn't a single drone cell in sight. Fully drawn out all the way to the corners, And then that doesn't give the bees any space to go in and put loads of drone comb into the colony in the spring, which means you're going to get rapid buildup of your colonies, and you're also going to get bumper amounts of worker bees in there as well. So as I always say, I'm more than happy to have the conversations on Facebook. Like, I really do like it. I never want it to be kind of a confrontational thing. I love to have the discussions over it, but all I'm doing is I'm talking to you about my own experiences and what works for me in the UK, and I just suggest you give things a try because that sheet of foundation over there on a big strong colony, that is going to do so much good for that colony. I've got rid of a dark frame, I've added in a new one, zero amount of drone cells, completely drawn out, and the bees have gone in and they've turned it into a usable frame slap bang in the middle of the hive. So I hope you enjoyed that video. I hope you found it useful. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, And I'll see you next time. Bye.
