Empty Comb
Lexikon
An empty comb is a comb that has already been fully built out, with cells the bees have finished shaping, but that contains neither brood nor stores such as honey or pollen.
An empty comb is a comb that has already been fully built out, with cells the bees have finished shaping, but that contains neither brood nor stores such as honey or pollen. It thus differs from a mere sheet of wax foundation, where the bees still have to draw out the cell walls themselves, and from a comb that has already been used for brood or is filled.
Empty combs are valuable to the beekeeper, because bees can immediately store nectar on them, or the queen can immediately start laying, without wax and energy first having to be invested in building new cells. Empty but never-brooded combs are especially popular in the honey super, so that honey is stored right from the start in clean cells without cocoon residues from brood.
It is important to distinguish between empty combs from the honey super and former brood combs: combs on which brood has already been raised darken over time and collect residues from the pupal cocoons, which is why they should be regularly removed from the brood chamber and melted down instead of being reused in the honey super. For storage, never-brooded empty combs can be kept for quite a long time under good storage conditions, while old brood combs should be taken out of circulation promptly.