# Honey comb verse Brood Comb



## Justin3 (Jun 10, 2010)

Can you put frames that have been drawn out for honey down in the brood area?? Will the bees put honey in or will they convert to brood comb? Vice versa also?

Just wondering if I need to bee so strict about keeping them separate since I am running 10 frame deeps for brood and honey???


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## frazzledfozzle (May 26, 2010)

brood and honey comb can be interchangeable. if you put the empty honey frame in the brood area it will become a brood frame if you put it to the outside it will more likely be filled with honey. It depends where in hive the you put your frame not what was in that frame previously


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## eqnox (Nov 10, 2009)

The bees won't care, but you do want to be careful about what you have done with the comb. If you have medicated the brood box, there maybe chemicals on the brood frames. Honey stored in this frame could have trace amounts of the medication in it. 

I have started marking frames which have been treated with Api Life.


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## delber (Dec 26, 2010)

If you're using foundation then it most likely won't matter. However if you're going foundationless I understand that they draw the supers out to drone cell diameters which may / would effect your brood area. That's the only other concern that I can see. (other than the honeycomb will be darker if you take the brood to honey super.)


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## Omie (Nov 10, 2009)

More more tidbit to consider-
When you are storing frames- wax moths tend to go after comb which has been sued to raise brood at some time. They supposedly bother less the comb that has only been used for honey or pollen. So if you switch them back and forth then you will have to be more careful about storing them if they've had brood raised in them.


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## Heartspark (Mar 18, 2011)

I was reading in complete idiots guide to beekeeping that they encourage putting honey comb in brood nest on the outside frames in northern areas because bees use it for stores so they don't have to move up/around for food as much. Not sure the right ratio for honey for that, guess it depends on size of hive going into fall/winter months. This is all assuming i guess you don't use queen excluders, which they don't recommend in the book.

Do northern areas have less viruses and other problems than south with the colder temperatures? Or they don't discriminate when temp is warmer?


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