Using plastic or wax foundation in your hives is all up to personal preference, there is no "right answer". There are pros and cons to each and ill list those here and you can make an informed decision.
 
Wax Or Wax Coated Plastic Foundation - Which Do I choose?
 
Using plastic or wax foundation in your hives is all up to personal preference, there is no "right answer". There are pros and cons to each and ill list those here and you can make an informed decision.
 
Plastic Foundation
 
Pros
 
  • Wax moths cannot damage plastic foundation sheets.
  • Plastic foundation sheets are reusable virtually forever. When it's time to replace wax you just scrape it off with your hive tool and throw it right back in a hive. This means you purchase it once, not every couple of years as you must do with wax.
  • Plastic foundation sheets are far cheaper in the long run. waxed plastic prices are on par with 100% wax but never need replacing.
  • Will not get destroyed by extraction in honey supers.
  • Comes in black which makes its use in brood boxes a god-send, as eggs show up easily even for us older beekeepers.
Cons
 
  • 1. Occasionally bees will sometimes not like to draw a sheet out.
This is easily fixed by just melting some spare wax in an old used crock pot used specifically to store and melt your old spare beeswax. You can then use a foam 4" paint roller and spread another coat of melted wax on your plastic frames, then they will draw it like crazy.
 
You can also fix it by putting the frame with the sheet they don't like between two fully drawn frames in your hive which results in them drawing it out as well. This single Con of waxed plastic foundation can also be solved by purchasing double wax or triple waxed plastic from Rightcell or Pierco, we carry both brands online here, and at our store in Kinston NC.
 
Wax Foundation
 
Pros
 
  • Beeswax foundation sheets have nearly universal acceptance by the bees with rapid drawing out.
 
Cons
 
  • Beeswax foundation sheets are easily destroyed by wax moths in storage.
  • Beeswax foundation sheets are difficult to ship in winter or mid-summer, and none of the suppliers including us will warrant it during shipment.
  • Beeswax foundation sheets are destroyed in order to replace foundation in your brood comb which should be done every 2-3 years to make sure your brood cell size doesn't grow too small resulting in smaller and smaller bees, and so that pesticides and other chemicals which can permeate wax do not build up.
  • Many times beeswax foundation sheets get destroyed while extracting honey from your supers.
The many reasons beeswax foundation sheets get destroyed, while costing around $200 for 175 sheets of deep wax foundation makes it so much more expensive in the long run. 
 
So we can easily see from the pros and cons list that plastic foundation is the clear winner. However, if you are a beekeeper that never wants to deal with moving a frame between two drawn frames, or having to every once in a great while add a little bit of wax with a foam roller, then 100% beeswax is probably for you.
 
If you need any of the listed products, we carry them all in stock online at https://www.funnybugbees.com or in our Kinston, North Carolina store.
 
You can use this link to shop for our 100% beeswax foundation
You can use this link to shop our plastic and wax coated plastic foundation