Foundationless frames one year on

Just over a year ago I began my experiment with foundationless brood frames, using a design copied from David Evans' blog. There is no starter strip but a key is provided by lollipop sticks to encourage the bees to build straight comb.  Two vertical bamboo skewers divide the frame into three and provide an anchor to improve stability once the bees have attached the sides of the comb to them.

I was fascinated a year ago by the variation in cell size and orientation and promised to post an update.  I have continued to use foundationless frames and following David Evans' advice I don't put in two adjacent to each other.  I either alternate with frames with foundation or put them between two drawn frames to ensure the bees don't have an excuse for building comb out of line.  Below is a frame I removed at the start of this season when I did a Bailey comb change, after it had been in place for less than a year.  It is interesting to see how dark the comb is after less than 12 months' use as brood comb.  Note that the middle part of the triptych shows worker comb in "normal" orientation; the right hand panel is worker comb in the top 3/4 and drone comb at the bottom, again in "normal" orientation; and the left panel is mostly drone comb but rotated through 90° (or 30°, depending how you look at it!).

These other photos were taken during an inspection last weekend.  This frame has drone comb on the right, sideways worker comb in the centre, and sideways drone comb on the left.

This one has worker-sized comb left and right but with different orientation, and drone comb in the centre.

Another has mostly worker comb but drone-sized cells at the left and right edges.

This one is a honey comb but still shows variation in cell size and orientation.

Another with stores, but this time all worker-sized comb.

This is all worker brood.

And this is a mixture of worker and drone brood.

Given that no one bee is in charge of construction, it would be fascinating to know how the bees decide which size comb to build and which way up it should be.  I have been encouraged by this experience and I'll continue to use foundationless frames.  As I said in last year's post, the potential advantages are:

1. The bees produce their own wax.  Recycled commercial wax may contain residues of chemicals and pesticides.
2. The bees can decide when and where they want to produce worker brood or drone brood.  Generally they will produce more drone brood than when constrained by worker brood foundation.
3. The bees can decide the cell size for worker and drone brood.
4. Comb production is said to be faster if there is no foundation.
5. The queen will lay earlier.
6. Foundationless frames are cheaper to make.
7. They will be much easier to recycle - just melt out the wax and they're ready to go.

The potential disadvantages are:

1. They take slightly longer to make.
2. The comb is more fragile until the bees have fixed it securely to the sides and the bottom of the frame so the beekeeper has to be careful during manipulation.
3. The bees raise more drones, especially in spring.  This is probably not a problem but a fact.  I have a lot of drones in the apiary.  Given that my bees are very well behaved this is probably a good thing but it gets quite noisy when they are all flying about.