bees re-building some old combs

[louis1st]

Hello
I made a few weeks ago a few nucs, and noted that the bees of one of them, are actually taking to pieces the empty built combs i have given them, and rebuilding them from scratch.
this is something i first noted from the mother hive.
unfortunately, i am not able to say whether or not they are SC or not.

Has this behaviour been noticed by anybody else?

PS- the colony the bees have been taken are a buckfast x cecropia colony, which have been doing very without any treatment until very recently

thanks

[Michael Bush]

I've seen them tear down comb sometimes. If it doesn't suit their fancy.

[louis1st]

I just can't understand why these combs wouldn't suit their fancy in this particular occasion as some other colonies are using the same sort of frames with no problems whatsoever (the frames are in perfect condition as far as i can see)... I suspect it's rather a question of behaviour of the colony itself but i am not sure...

I was wondering if this would be more likely to happen with a fully regressed colony if given a large cells drawn comb or would the regressed colony just accept the frame?

[Michael Bush]

From my experience most bees, regressed or not, will accept anything from 4.4mm to 5.5mm cells as worker cells without tearing them down. They are more likely to tear down some worker brood when there is less than 10% drone comb and they want some drones, or there is too much drone comb and not enough worker brood. Maybe there is something else going on like wax moth eggs or a bad smell on the wax from mice or something?

But sometimes they just get a wild hair. smile.gif