Foundation are sheets of beeswax or plastic that are used to guide the comb building and give support

to the comb.

Foundation is not required, as bees will build comb without it. Foundation is used to guide the location
and orientation of the comb. Patterned foundation also guides the size of the comb cells, which
influences the size of the worker bees and discourages or encourages the production of drones.

The typical foundation pattern has a 4.9mm to 5.2mm cell size, which encourages the production of
smaller worker bees. A foundation with 5.5mm or 5.6mm cells is used to bias the production of drones.

Plastic foundation starts as a smooth or patterned plastic sheet, which is then covered with a thin layer
of high grade beeswax and impressed with a comb pattern. Even patterned sheets are impressed to
create well-defined outlines.

Beeswax foundation is created with melted wax poured into a flexible silicone mold, or impressed onto
softened wax sheets by rigid molds or roller presses.

Plastic foundation is preferred by commercial scale beekeepers. It supports comb better in high
temperatures, is more robust with rough handling during extraction, and can typically be refreshed by
melting off the old wax, cleaned with a hot water spray and re-dipped in melted beeswax.