>>I am intrigued by the preference for aged comb vs. newly drawn comb and hope to hear responses to specifically address what I observer this afternoon.

In feral colonies, newly drawn or light color comb almost always stays that way for years and is meant for honey storage.  Since swarms start combs at the top of cavities and the queen starts laying near the top, I imagine only one or two generations of brood will be raised at the top.  Once combs get long enough, the brood rearing takes place more towards the bottom.  In the early spring it will move up to the mid portion of the nest as bees come up for the honey stores.

The bees may have developed hence a preference for darker comb to raise their brood in.  A lot of pollen is stored in the dark combs for the winter food.  If a colony is on the side of a weaker one, some of the pollen will spoil and the bees will often cut out large swaths of old comb and rebuild it with the inflow of new nectar.  This helps to reduce spores and disease in the brood nest.

Dark comb has a different smell even to the human nose.  Perhaps this smell is more attractive to the bees?

In single deeps, the bees will turn to new combs as they expand the nest and have no other options.  Staying to one side of the box may also be due to a weaker colony trying to better control night time cold spells.

Waldemar

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