Hello Lennard & All, >I would discard them as GBP (good beekeeping practice). Safe is good but I personally have completely disregarded what the books say and used equipment from other beekeepers from the start. I mix frames and bring in comb almost yearly from other beekeepers. The only problem I see is having to cull frames with too much drone comb or drawn wrong frames. When I buy used hives or equipment we use the best and burn the rest. >I like to stay away from other beekeepers. Good advice. I find other beekeepers are always wanting to borrow money. >Strains of strange, non-local Nosema might come with them. The above is why I answered the post. As far as I know there are nosema apis and nosema ceranae in honeybees. I have never heard of local variations. Randy? >Nosema ceranae made it to all the islands here, My advice is to keep an eye on nosema levels and not wait till hives are crashing to start control. I know that's not what the experts say but my opinion as a nosema survivor. > Lord knows what residues are in other peoples wax. I agree. I hear the stories at meetings and scares me to death! bob *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm