The PF120s get dirty from the dust on the road etc and the bees start to ignore the plastic and build fins or parallel half combs. So I wax dip them. This fixes the problem. I went through a lot of wax. I bought 400 pounds of it from an organic beekeeper who doesn't treat so I could get clean wax. We also dipped all the shims, and top/bottoms in gum rosin and wax. Here we are dipping the frames in a 55 gal barrel with water in the bottom, wax on top and a wood fire underneath. A leaf blower is used to control the heat. I dip half of the frame, flip it and dip the other half and then slam it on the side of the barrel to get the excess off.
I saw this frenzy going on and turned the cover over to block the entrance. They were doing this same thing before I blocked it. They would pile up until they would fall in clumps. I slowed it down to try to see it better.
I consider propolizing a good trait for bees (maybe not for the beekeeper). Here is a mating nuc I found this year. The drilled hole is about 5/8". The reduced hole is about 5/16".
It wasn't working right and then it would and then it wouldn't. This is what I found. It couldn't get out, so I left it and used another smoker. It was finally out after two days.
We needed to feed because of a dearth and we still needed to finish building up the 8 frame nucs for winter. We bought 50 six gallon buckets and bought 3,450 pounds of sugar in 25 lb bags. We worked out the maximum strength we could do with hot water from my tap (140 F) and not have it crystallize out. We put one 25 pound bag in each bucket with a heaping tablespoon of ascorbic acid, then 18 pints of water and stir it with a five gallon paint stirrer. After 10 to 30 minutes we stir it again.
