> despite of Allen and Randy's recently-expressed love of old black
> brood combs, I still rotate my brood combs on a strict 2 combs per
> year basis,

Actually, notwithstanding my earlier comments, I agree.  I think Randy
was saying he would not discard a comb simply for age and that is my
policy too, but I am sure we both turn over a lot of comb in normal
operation without setting out to do so.

Maybe I should explain.  As we have been seeing lately, language can
be imprecise and context tends to be assumed by writers, but can be far
less obvious to readers.  That is where discussion like this helps
reconcile apparently conflicting ideas.

I do, indeed, value old combs and never discard on basis of age alone,
but I seldom have very many very old combs on a percentage basis as I am
constantly adding new frames.  I am always short of good 'experienced'
comb and I always have been due to expanding numbers of hives.

During my commercial career, I was always expanding hive numbers and
building up.  Then I sold out. I did not reach a point where I had a
large amount of old comb and was never faced with that problem.  I also
learned quite quickly how to minimize chemical use and probably used 1/4
of what others did or less, with good control.  I never used coumaphos.

In the process of making up brood chambers annually from deadouts and
super comb, we always discarded combs, not for age, but for condition,
but there tended to be a fairly strong correlation.

In my current small-time operation, I have been raising and selling
complete hives and in the process, drawing a lot of new comb to replace
what is sold.

In our area bees do not do well over winter on new comb, so we treasure
combs which have been used for brood for more than a year.  Any harm
from age, and I grant there must be some, is more than balanced by the
benefits of greatly improved wintering success.

So, I think I am probably rotating out combs at about that same 10% rate
-- or more -- and consider adding new comb at 10% to be about optimal.

I don't cull combs just for age, but older combs leave my outfit either
through sales of hives or due to no longer being suitable for brood
chambers and being culled.

I realise that some mark the year on each frame and cull religiously on
that basis, but I don't.  Over five or ten years, a comb may be in
constant use, or it could spend most of the time somewhere in the back
of the storage shed.

So, my comments should be taken in the context of where I am and what i
am doing.  If I were running a stable number of hives and not selling
off a lot of comb, I would probably be culling at somewhere around 10%
if for no other reason than the fact that bees need to draw comb or they
will gum up the hive.

Since the people who usually ask about comb rotation tend to be newbees
and probably don't have much comb, let alone old comb, I tend to
emphasize the value of dark comb.  I doubt they have any of those
40-year old dark combs that one can walk on without denting them and are
considering a five year comb to be dark and ancient.

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