old comb in hive

[bradley39482]

this has probably been posted before, but was wondering how long does comb in a hive stay good, my bee's still have their spring comb in the supers, i did not cut the comb. the supers have plastic foundation. left 3 supers ,they are full of comb, but didn't know how long its good for?

[rrussell6870]

A LONG time... don't worry about it... so long as pests don't get into it, it will be ok.

[bradley39482]

thanks
i thought it would be o.k, just wasn't for sure.

[psfred]

Back in the pre-pesticide days, comb could be used indefinitely, at least as long as the bees would use it. Now, it's probably prudent to slowly exchange out old comb so that it's not much older than 5 or 6 years, simply because it slowly accumulates residual pesticides and herbicides from the incoming pollen and nectar. It will darken as it ages, but get tougher. The brood comb will become quite black and very rigid, which is nice. Comb in the supers that only gets used for honey will darken, but not so much, and alse get stronger.

If one is treating with insecticides for mites (fluvalinate and coumaphos), the comb will become contaminated at fairly high levels pretty fast, and should probably be rotated out more often.

Peter