Re: radiation of bee combs.

I remember back in the 1980s a large scale beekeeper in San Diego told me
that after irradiating combs, bees seemed to do better on them (than they
would on regular combs). He felt that old combs must contain a lot of
deleterious substances -- viruses, fungi, microsporidians, who knows what? 

But I don't think irradiation is really cost effective. Better to melt down
the old combs and start with new. Many people are trying to replace combs
much more frequently. 

Old timers (like me) tend to look at old combs as an asset, but if they
harbor malignant organisms, maybe we are better off replacing them. I know
how hard it is to get good combs drawn out, but one has to look at the
advantage of clean combs

pb

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