Honeybees are fantastic creatures. Once a beekeeper provides them with boxes and frames, they go ahead to draw comb and make their gorgeous architecture. The bees use the comb for food storage and as a brood nursery. The size of wax cells decreases as combs age and as the bees reuse them for brood rearing.  

Drawn comb is a priceless commodity in beekeeping operations that saves these fantastic creatures a lot of time and energy. When bee colonies die out, beekeepers wonder whether they can use brood comb in other colonies or not. They strive to find a safe balance between saving the precious drawn comb and reducing the risk to healthy bee colonies. Old wax accumulates pesticides and chemicals brought in by foragers, chemicals from treatments. 

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Can you reuse brood comb?

You can reuse combs. But if it is from dead-out colonies, it is good to figure out why bees died or absconded the hive. If a colony died from mites infestation or diseases, it is advisable to throw the combs away than risk introducing them to a healthy colony in your apiary.

However, if bees died of starvation or cold, it is safe to re-use the brood comb. Before use, ensure the brood combs are in decent shape, not moldy, or have dead bees on them. Re-using combs with dead bees or larvae is risky since they may harbour disease pathogens. If a bee colony died out in fall or early winter, food stores might be intact( honey and pollen). The stores can benefit new or weak colonies in spring, although pollen becomes less potent as it ages. However, human consumption of such honey is not recommended. 

If none of your colonies requires the comb at the moment, you can store them in a freezer for future use. It prevents infestations by wax moths, mice, raccoons, and cockroaches. 

How often should beekeepers replace old comb?

While some beekeepers keep their brood combs for decades, others opt to replace them every few years(3-4 years). Some suggest changing every 5-6 years.  However, the comb drawing process is an expensive operation for the colony. The energy that worker bees employ in making wax can be used in constructive ways, such as foraging and making honey. That’s why beekeepers are sometimes hesitant to discard the old brood comb too quickly.  

How do brood comb cells change over time?

Brood comb cells change with time, and cells become smaller. The old brood comb is dark and brown. Newer combs also darken quickly from white to brown or gold.  While the new fresh brood comb contains pure wax, the old comb is a mixture of wax, silk, pupal cocoons and propolis and possesses different properties. 

Before pupation, bee larvae cover the walls of their cells with silk, and the following generations add more of it.  Even though the first duty of a worker bee after emergence is to clean her cells, some debris will always be left.  This makes the cells become smaller and smaller.  The ratio of silk to wax also increases. While this problem does not prevent the cell from being used repeatedly, it becomes smaller over the years. 

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What can you do with unusable old brood combs?

Beekeepers tend to melt down these old black combs to collect usable beeswax. However, it yields minimal wax, stinks, and does not give good quality wax. It is also full of stains, propolis, and pupal cocoons. They also use small amounts to lure or attract swarms. It is usually attractive to scout bees hunting for a nest.