Sid Pullinger wrote:
>I made no
> reference to stored combs, an entirely different situation.  My letter
> concerned the re-use of old mouldy combs, in store for a year, and from a
> colony which died out, cause unknown.  The cause might have been varroa, in
> which case no danger in re-use, but it could have been a contagious disease:
> the beekeeper did not know the reason for the colony's collapse.  Starting a
> new colony with such combs, almost certainly containing nosema and chalk
> brood spores if nothing worse, is not my idea of good beekeeping  and in my
> view is asking for trouble.  Incidentally,far more work for the bees than
> drawing out new foundation.
 
The point here is that certain diseases should be avoided when giving old nasty combs to
new colonies to clean out.  I agree that AFB combs should never be used, but burned
instead.  However, it is easy to check combs, even dirty, moldy combs for AFB scales and
other signs.  On the other hand, nosema spores are everywhere; you can't avoid them -
they will even get onto perfectly new drawn comb.  Chalkbrood is, as I understand it, a
disease of stress (like EFB) to which genetically susceptible strains will succumb.  A
good colony will just throw out the chalkbrood mummies and get on with the job.  A bad
colony under stress will get chalkbrood on new combs as well.
 
My advice: except for AFB (which every beekeeper should learn to identify), use the old
combs and save yourself unnecessary work.  There is already enough to do.
 
Ted Fischer
Dexter, Michigan, USA