Supers reused as brood comb ?

[malabarchillin]

Now that I am getting a extractor and will be able to reuse drawn comb :
I would like to transition from deep to med brood boxes. After drawn comb has
been used as honey storage will the bees clean it enough and reuse it for brood comb ?
Regards
Mike

[Robo]

Absolutely.   The will interchange brood/honey storage all the time.

[Scadsobees]

The controversy arises when you get a brood super full of honey.  :roll:

[Michael Bush]

That depends on what you used for foundation size in the supers and what you want in your brood nest.  If you use drone foundation in the supers, they will not do well in the brood nest.  If you want small cell and the supers are large cell, they will not be what you want.  If you use no foundation in the supers and you want natural cell size, the supers will be honey storage sized cells, and not small worker sized cells.  If you use standard brood foundation in both your brood and supers and you don't want small cell, then you are set.

[malabarchillin]

Thanks for the replies.
If I went foundationless in the super does that mean they probably drew larger cells (drone cells ? )
for honey storage and will not be useful in a med brood box later ? I have a  foundationless frame in the brood box, did they probably draw drone comb because the other foundation is worker foundation ? If so is it useless except for to attract mites and then burn it ?

Now this is confusing. In a brood box in the outer frames that are not often used for brood do they tend to draw larger cells for storage or the same as they would for the rest of the brood box ?
I understand that they will draw what they believe that they need and the honey,pollen and brood patterns within any given frame.I am trying to understand is there a 'normal' distribution for cell size in different areas of the brood box. Are drone cells larger in diameter or just deeper ? If they are just deeper does that mean that a super frame after extraction is now shallower is acceptable for worker brood ?
I saw a website that talked of putting a med frame of worker foundation in a deep brood box and let them draw drone comb below that could be removed to manage mites. Is this useful or is the number of mites removed negligible due to small amount of drone comb below medium frame ?

[Michael Bush]

>If I went foundationless in the super does that mean they probably drew larger cells (drone cells ? )

Maybe drone, more likely something in between.  It's easy enough to find out.  Measure across ten cells in the center of the comb and see what they are.

>for honey storage and will not be useful in a med brood box later ?

I wouldn't say they aren't useful.  You'll still need supers.

> I have a  foundationless frame in the brood box, did they probably draw drone comb because the other foundation is worker foundation?

They drew whatever they drew.  If it's 5.7 or above it's probably drone.  If it's 5.2 to 5.4 it's probably honey storage.  If it's 4.9mm or smaller they were planning on using it for brood later.

> If so is it useless except for to attract mites and then burn it ?

Not at all.  Use it in your supers.

>Now this is confusing. In a brood box in the outer frames that are not often used for brood do they tend to draw larger cells for storage or the same as they would for the rest of the brood box ?

Yes.  But it will seldom get used for brood.

>I understand that they will draw what they believe that they need and the honey,pollen and brood patterns within any given frame.I am trying to understand is there a 'normal' distribution for cell size in different areas of the brood box. Are drone cells larger in diameter or just deeper?

Drones are 5.7mm or so up to 7.0mm or so.  Mostly they run around 6.0mm to 6.6mm.  The queen decides what to lay in the cell based on the diameter.  The bees decide how deep to make the cell based on the gender.  Drone cells are both larger in diameter and deeper.

> If they are just deeper does

They are not.

> that mean that a super frame after extraction is now shallower is acceptable for worker brood ?

No.  Drone brood is drone brood.

>I saw a website that talked of putting a med frame of worker foundation in a deep brood box and let them draw drone comb below that could be removed to manage mites.

They will build drone below if IF they have not had the opportunity to build enough drone comb and they need some now.  Otherwise they are likely to build worker comb.  Since most people use worker brood foundation in the brood nest and cull drone comb ruthlessly, the bees in most hives are desperate to build drone comb, so this solution works well in that environment.

> Is this useful or is the number of mites removed negligible due to small amount of drone comb below medium frame ?

If you don't have many mites, it's not that useful.  If you have a lot of mites, it is useful.  Either way it's a lot of resources for the bees as they will replace those drones and they could have been raising workers instead after those drones filled their "drone quota".

[Scadsobees]

Even if they do draw drone comb in the supers, at that point it is simple enough to cut it out when you want to use it for brood, then you have well used waxed frames that will be accepted and drawn out quickly.