[juzzerbee]

Is it okay to use honey frames that I have extracted to replace some brood frames in my hives? Will the bees "convert" the honey comb to "brood comb?" I have noticed that brood comb is much stronger/durable than honey comb. Some of you may know that I am asking this because I am a bit low on drawn brood frames and I need to replace some brood frames that have been filled with syrup. Thanks, juzzer

 

[ForrestB]

Sure, you can use those frames for brood, no problem. At least it hasn't caused me any problems in the past.

 

[Vance G]

If the frames are worker cells and not all drone comb, there is absolutely no reason not to. When I first kept bees and was expanding, my deep supers were next years brood boxes. I find that bees winter better on darker comb so swap out early and let the bees raise some brood in them this year.

 

[juzzerbee]

Ha, Vance, immediately after I read only your first line my mind was suggesting to maybe try using deeps as honey supers this year so I have a "stock" of deeps ready to go for next year. And then bam......I read your second sentence.
When you did this, did the bees reinforce the brood area to a thicker/stronger area of cells like brood cells seem to be..compared to honey comb? Thanks to both of you, juzzer

 

[Vance G]

When I was young, strong as a bull and twice as smart, all I ran were deeps. All drawn comb then went into next years brood chambers as I expanded. The foundation was mostly duragilt and I never noticed and can't say I do now, notice much difference between brood comb and honey storage comb. The brood comb rapidly gets stiffened up by all those layers of cocoons lining them. If you can throw deeps for supers, it is sure cheaper than running mediums and the standardization is sure a lot easier to manage.

Now I am using deeps for brood chambers and experimenting with mediums for a brood nest. A couple weeks ago I found a queen who was laying beautiful large patterns of infertile eggs in worker cells and decided I would shake out the three medium deep colony to spread a large population around among a group of weaker wintered colonies. By the time I shook out thirtysome medium frames I had about decided where the medium for brood experiment was going. As long as you can physically do it, deeps are just plain easier and quicker to manage.