One of our major beekeeper replaces a box of combs each year. He had a hobbyist with hives in one of his yards and every year this hobbyist produced another box per hive than his hives. So he observed and the hobbyist was changing combs on a regular basis while he wasn't.
So now his bees go into winter three high and after the bees have moved up into the second box, the bottom box is removed and the frames recycled. I believe he mostly uses plastic frames and had developed a machine to clean them but I haven't seen it.
Frank Lindsay
New Zealand
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From: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Mark Berninghausen <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, 31 December 2016 4:43:35 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BEE-L] Old combs vs new
What kind of hive was in use in 1843?
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