>I'd use them in a heartbeat.  Four years is like, like, uh, I mean, uh,

> barely broken in.


I concur with Allen.  In my mind, if a colony of my bees can't deal with
old combs, then I don't want those bees in my breeding program!

When people ask me the same question, I suggest that they simply look at
the brood pattern on the comb in question. If there's a good-looking brood
pattern (even stepdown of larval age, with few replaced larvae) then it is
unlikely that there are pathogen/pesticide/pollutant issues with that comb.

>
> >In some cases, some strains of bee can even clean up and use heavily
> scaled AFB combs, but I am not recommending this and definitely don't
> try this at home, kids.


I've bred such bees, and their ability to clean up a box of AFB-infected
combs is truly impressive!

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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