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From:
John Caldeira <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 30 Jun 1996 10:49:41 -0700
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I want to thank those who responded to my request for scientific evidence
that replacing old brood combs may be good for the health and/or honey
production of a colony.
 
  Below are the replies I received.  Some replies were sent privatly so I
have omitted authorship, and they have been edited for space.  Much logical
thinking, but surprisingly there were scientific studies were cited.
 
-----1
I have done beekeeping over 10 years and have replaced old combs frequently.
I thought always that the main reason is that if you don't replace your old
combs your bees are getting smaller.
And an another reason is that my friends want to have brighter honey. Honey
from brood combs is a bit darker.
-----/1
 
-----2
I'm really sceptical of this practice unless nearly all are replaced on a
regular basis. The idea is that "minor" pathogens are doing damage and
that clean new combs will reduce them. If only a few combs are replaced
at a time , I don't see why the remaining combs will not keep the suspect
pathogen active in the hive. I do know people who run all their used stuff
thru a gamma ray sanitizer and they say the results are
spectacular, the bees look like they are on new equipment. In my own
experience, I cannot see any differance between colonies with all new
combs and colonies with all very old (20-40 yrs) combs.
----/2
 
---3
Sorry, no printed sources, but Bro. Adam wrote in an issue of American
Bee Journal (two or three years ago) about culling old brood frames and
I have heard Dr. Roger Morse say the same when speaking to the Southern
Adirondack Beekeepers Association.  Rationale being that pathogens
collect in the frames that are used over and over again.  In a natural
setting the bees would either move up into their nesting cavity and
abandon the aging brood comb or they would simply swarm and leave the
old comb behing, which would then be consumed by wax moths, thereby
cleaning up the abandoned cavity making it available for a new swarm
of bees to occupy.  The figures I recall for recycling old brood combs
is five years (tough for a commercial operation but more doable for
the hobbiest).
------/3
 
----4
Cant say that I know of research on age of comb and its effecton the colony.
My own opinion is that if you go on using comb until it contains just over
6% of drone cells and then scrap them.  The comb rarely gets beyond five
years old, most are replaced in about 3 years.
-----/4
 
----5
I have not seen any scientific data or papers on the removal of old combs.
I have read several articles and listened to several lectures which advocate
rotating old combs about every 5 years.  The reason given is that toxins
build up in the wax combs from the chemicals we put in the hive and the
pollutants that the bees bring in.  I have also heard some beekeepers say
that they change so that the bees won' t become to small using an ever
decreasing size cell to grow in.  But then another beekeeper countered, "How
small is to small".
 
I attended a seminar this past weekend and one of the lecturers said that
there is evidence that bees only survived 2 to 5 years in the same nest in
the wild prior to domestication.  They would either die out or abscond. Then
the waxworms would clean up the wax and then bees moved back in and
constructed new combs.
 
I have started removing old combs a few years ago and I feel that it has
contributed to the general health of my bees.  All in all I would say that
in the absence of something more definitive, it is a matter of preference
when or if combs are rotated.
----/5
 
Thank you all for your perspectives on this.
 
Cheers,
John in Dallas (stilll looking for scientific evidence on this)

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