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re-using comb

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Michael Bush 
#1 ·
My bees seem reluctant to use comb recycled from another hive. I put some fully drawn comb (left over from another hive that starved to death just 6-8 weeks ago) in an exploding hive. What I found 1 and 2 weeks later was eggs and brood (1) in the one honey super thus far put on and (2) in the original deep comb that had been with the hive previously, but no action in the recycled comb.

Do you ever see such a problem with acceptance of "recycled" comb? And, once eggs/brood are in the honey super frames, does that make the bees less likely to use that space in the super comb for honey storage once the brood is out (even if I block the queen into the lower space with a queen excluder)?

Many thanks,

David in Baltimore
 
#2 ·
>My bees seem reluctant to use comb recycled from another hive. I put some fully drawn comb (left over from another hive that starved to death just 6-8 weeks ago) in an exploding hive. What I found 1 and 2 weeks later was eggs and brood (1) in the one honey super thus far put on and (2) in the original deep comb that had been with the hive previously, but no action in the recycled comb.

It probably has more to do with location. But I don't know the exact location where it is in relation to where they are putting the brood.

>Do you ever see such a problem with acceptance of "recycled" comb?

No.

>And, once eggs/brood are in the honey super frames, does that make the bees less likely to use that space in the super comb for honey storage once the brood is out

Not once the brood is out if there isn't more brood around it. They will, of course, probably continue to spread out into the honey super now that they have advanced the brood chamber into there.

> (even if I block the queen into the lower space with a queen excluder)?

That might work if there's brood in the lower space also. If not, I've seen them raise a new queen in the brood chamber above the queen.
 
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