In this tutorial, Laurence Edwards demonstrates a practical method for embedding wax foundation onto wired Langstroth frames by replacing a traditional car battery with a 12‑/24‑volt automatic car charger. He explains why the charger provides a more consistent current, outlines the inexpensive equipment needed, and walks through the step‑by‑step process: preparing the frame with stainless steel or galvanized wire, tightening the wires, positioning the foundation, and connecting the charger’s red and black terminals to opposite ends of each wire for a brief 3‑4 second pulse. Edwards highlights how to avoid overheating and melting the foundation, offers troubleshooting tips for uneven current, and points out the audible fan feedback that confirms proper current flow. The video concludes with a visual check of a correctly embedded frame ready for a bee colony, emphasizing the method’s reliability and cost‑effectiveness.
Chapters
Today I'm going to show you how to embed wireless foundation onto a wired frame using a car battery charger. Now previously when I used to embed my foundation, I used to use a car battery, and it was a bit of a nightmare using the car battery because you're constantly charging it up and it doesn't really give you a consistent current. At least the battery that I've been using doesn't. So I tried doing it with the actual charger for the car battery and found out that it's just loads easier doing that, and I get a much more consistent result. So I'm just using a bog-standard 12-volt/24-volt car charger from Amazon. It's like an automatic voltage one, so you don't select between the two. Bit gutted 'cause I wanted the 24-volt variant, but it works just as well. And it's only about £23 when I bought it. So I'll stick that link up at the bottom of the video if you wanna buy this exact charger. But in this video, I'm just gonna run through a really quick process for embedding that foundation onto a wired frame. So first thing you need to do is get your frames fully wired using a stainless steel wire preferably, if not a galvanized wire. Make sure they're really nice and tight. If they need tightening, tighten them up before you put the wax on. And all you're gonna do is plug in the car battery charger and place the frame on a stable worktop. What I like to do is then connect the black terminal to the frame, and then I place my piece of foundation directly onto the frame. And all I do with the red terminal is I just go and tap the other side of the wire. Now be quick, 3 or 4 seconds per wire is more than enough here to get it embedded. If you go too far and put too much current through it, it will just melt through, and then the foundation is completely wrecked at that point. So make sure you don't put too much current through it. Now, if you're finding that it's melting the foundation at one end but not at the other end, the other way of doing it is that you keep the terminals loose, put the foundation onto the frame, and then just go at corresponding ends of each individual wire. I know it's just one wire that's going through, but you've essentially got three or four. Single wires on that frame, and all I do is just put a positive at one end and a negative at the other end. And the beauty of this machine here, using the car charger as opposed to the car battery, is that when you make a full connection, the fan comes on and you kind of get that audible feedback to make sure that you're actually putting the correct amount of current through. I didn't get that on the battery, and you kind of have to look at it visually to make sure that you're not burning it through. Using the car battery charger, I found I have far fewer frames that I actually damage. Where I'm wrecking the foundation. So this is the end result. Obviously don't leave massive gaps at the top like here. This is just a national piece of foundation on a Langstroth frame just to show you the process. But you can see if I shake it around like that, that's in real time, not going anywhere, really well embedded onto that frame. And that frame there is good to go into a colony.
