I noticed bees bringing pollen into one of my winter deadouts. Cracked open the lid and the queen has eggs on 4 full frames. I never even cleaned out the dead cluster. They moved in and cleaned up. We have been having a great spring in Maryland. Swarms everywhere.
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Just looking at those frames, I would certainly remove, clean, fit new wire & install new wax foundation into them. A “deadout” is a deadout. It looks like a swarm must have moved in.
Thanks Jeff. A swarm did move in. I usually only replace 1 or 2 brood frames per hive per year. I use those old dark combs for swarm traps.
No worries, I think all of my brood combs get replaced each year because of all the splits I do. I’m starting to let the brood frames go with the colonies I sell on an exchange frames basis. That way I’m constantly keeping my brood frames in fresh foundation.
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