Foundationless Stick-to-it-iveness

Ahhh, the messiness of the foundationless hive. After applying the triple fix, I waited ten days to reinspect. I only found minor improvements. Even though a reader named Grumpy had prepared me for this, disappointment and frustration ensued. I understood the Grumpy moniker! Little Miss Perfection was not getting everything her heart desired. Luckily, perfection and obsession seek each other out (not to mention organization).

How does the saying go, "When in doubt, try, try again?" I think I'm learning that with Foundationless, a little stick-to-it attitude is important. And after cutting out comb, everything is sticky indeed.

So I continue with the three fixes:
1) Push comb around to straighten it
2) Cut out comb and put in rubber banded frames
3) Move frames around to alternate foundationless with foundation.

This Just Might Work
After another two weeks I reinspected, and WHOOHOO things are looking up.

I am now feeling much better about this hive. I have some frames with the most gorgeous, straight, foundationless comb. As any frizzy-haired girl knows, straight is where it's at. I've spent my whole life pursuing straight. No stinkin' hive is going to best me, at least not yet.

Of course, it's still not perfect. But there is a silver lining to every cloud. In this case, it is the opportunity to take better pictures of the rubber banding method.

Here is a picture of the rubber banded frame with no comb in it (with popsicle sticks glued in to the top to provide a guide for the bees). In the next picture, you can see the comb in the frame. As a new beekeeper, I'm sure there are other methods, but this is working pretty well for me. I pull the rubber bands apart to drop the comb in. Before I do this, I'm careful to lay the cut comb on top of the frames, in case the queen is on the comb (I actually found her on it, and had to shake her into the hive before putting the comb into the frames...don't want to accidentally drop her in the grass). Also, I probably don't act quickly enough, and thus am a little worried about chilled brood. But judging by the sweat dripping down my neck, the days are plenty warm.

As an aside, a close up of some of the rubber-banded comb reveals an unusually nice picture (for me) of larvae and eggs. The green tinge worried me a bit, but I think it's just the green grass in the background.

Does rubber banding work?

This frame used to have rubber bands on it (you can see the lines at the top where the bees stuck propolis between the rubber bands and the frame). It is now has straight, drawn comb. And no overlapping comb, I'm happy to see.

Interestingly, the rubber bands all break away for some reason. I remove them if they are still stuck to the frame. If they aren't stuck, the industrious bees kick them out, and I often find rubber bands at the hive entrance. Clean little buggers. I LOVE that.

I do have some overlapping comb on some foundationless frames that didn't ever have rubber bands on them. It seems to maintain the bee space, but maybe I'm wrong about that. So much to learn. Can I leave it, or should I cut it?