To pick or not to pick...

[Corey Johnson]

I have comb from my old hive that is full of dead bees. My question is, should I toss this comb and start over? Leave it alone and the new colony will clean out the dead? Last do I pick them out and reuse the comb?
Opinions appreciated!

[Corey Johnson]

On Monday, February 19, 2018 at 2:50:01 PM UTC-6, Corey Johnson wrote:
> I have comb from my old hive that is full of dead bees. My question is, should I toss this comb and start over? Leave it alone and the new colony will clean out the dead? Last do I pick them out and reuse the comb?
> Opinions appreciated!

For the record I did not starve these bees, ithe hive was found late in a squirrel house I didn’t want to bother them so late in the fall so left them and hoped for the best. I know you can reuse but it was you what would you do?

[Greg V]

Looks like a fine black comb for a swarm trap.
I would clean best I can (so to minimize the mold) and reuse it for a trap hive.

No need to be perfect either, just mostly clean.

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[jeanne hansen]

It is REALLY hard to get dead bees out of comb, sometimes.  The bees will do the job and re-use the comb.

Thanks!
Jeanne Hansen
824 Jacobson Ave
Madison, WI 53714
608-244-5094

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[Matt H]

Tap out what you can and store in a well ventilated dry area, preferably with some air circulation to help retard mold growth. Like Jeanne said, the bees will clean it out. They are pretty amazing creatures.

[Paul Zelenski]

Yeah, shake as many bees out of it as you can, but don’t work too hard at it. It’s also important to keep it from molding. If it just becomes a big all of mold (not just a bit of mold) the bees won’t clean it out, but rather just cover over the holes full of gunk.

Is that just a random piece of comb, though, that you cut out of a cutout? If it’s not a frame, or in a frame, I wouldn’t bother to keep it. But, then again, I have a fair bit of drawn comb. But, for me, I’d rather have the bees draw out nice clean comb than have a bunch of cobbled together frames of wonky comb. The comb from cutouts is good when it is full of brood and such, but imo not worth keeping just for the comb.

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