taking old brood comb out of service

[adamant]

i bought a few hives 2 years ago and the comb and frames looks very old. the hives are all deeps. whats the easiest way to switch out the comb? do a few at a time? i was planing on replacing both frames and comb!

[Vance G]

If they are old, you don't know the history and your going to replace them anyway,  I would just go ahead and do it.  Having been stuck with 170 used boxes of foulbrood spores, I am not as cavalier about used equipment as I used to be after burning it all winter.  This guy apparently just poured on the terrimayacin spring and fall for an epoch and when I got the equipment and didn't, every bee put in the equipment got AFB.   

[Steel Tiger]

rotate them out. pull the two outer frames, which should be honey, move the frames that are next to them out to replace them. keep moving the frames till you get to the middle and put two new frames there with 1 or 2 frame of brood between them. Once the bees fill out the empty frames, do it again.
 If you're using all mediums, put empty a couple empty mediums on the bottom and the bees will move down by themselves and start storing honey into the old frames once the brood emerges. Once the brood is gone and the queen is in the bottom of the hive laying eggs, you can pull them all at once and replace.

[Jim134]

i bought a few hives 2 years ago and the comb and frames looks very old. the hives are all deeps. whats the easiest way to switch out the comb? do a few at a time? i was planing on replacing both frames and comb!

If the comb is empty just replace it.



             
                     BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)