Will bees fill empty comb before building new ones?

[Zante]

I transferred my bees from their nuc to the hive last Tuesday, and I had a quick look at the combs. Good amount of brood, a few stores, and plenty of empty comb (quite black too, I'll have to change it later this year)

I was wondering if bees will fill the empty comb before drawing the foundation I've given them, or if they'll start drawing right away.

 

[enrico]

Could go either way, they will certainly start drawing it before the rest is full.
E

 

[pargyle]

Yes ... Enrico is right ...bees seem to know what they are doing ... sometimes they will build new when there is still space in the existing combs .. sometimes they will only build new comb when they are at the point when there is virtually no space left.

Who knows what their thinking is ? Certainly not me ..

What is always best is to make sure they have space or the opportunity to create space if they want it. I believe bees actually LIKE building comb at times ... if you don't give them somewhere that you want them to build comb ... they will find somewhere that you DON'T want them to build it ! (Been there - got the T-shirt !).

 

[Beagle23]

It probably also depends on the number bees in the colony, if they're very numerous then you will probably find that they're building everywhere at once.

 

[Zante]

I was wondering mostly because the com looks quite old, so much so that I want to change it this year if possible, without waiting for the next. Because of that I was thinking that maybe they'd prefer to build new comb and use that over the mucky black wax.

 

[enrico]

Change one frame on each inspection

 

[Swarm]

Until they draw out fresh comb, the only comb they have for brood is the old stuff and removing it before they have an alternative is not going to help. People obsess about old comb, I have a colony that had to be practically cut out of the old hive they were in, the combs are in a mess but more use to them than sheets of wax foundation (OP doesn't have spare comb)
It's mid April, let them expand to a size where they can draw combs quickly, then start thinking about removing old ones.

 

[Zante]

Don't worry, I'm not in that much of a hurry to change it, I'd just do it sooner than later, I was just wondering if the bees would prefer the new comb over the mucky one and hurry up drawing the foundation, or happily keep using the black wax until they have to start drawing new comb.