Bee hive question with CCD

[ther00ster'scr0w]

A family friend has offered to try to have a swarm of bees for our empty hive, and has had my hive for about a week now. However, she had 3 hives and 2 were supposedly affected by CCD and now she wants to try to put her hive out there to see if the bees will come to hers.

Her hives have the empty frames that have been built up by her bees, but she says that the swarming bees will be healthier if they came into a hive that has about half of the new frames and half of the frames from her old hive that was built up by her bees.

My question is...is it true that bees will be more likely to come into the hive if it is partially built up? and since her hive was affected by CCD, is it alright to reuse them?

Any info would be great!

 

[Frosty]

If I recall from when I was younger, it wasn't a case of the bees going to the hive, more like finding a swarm somewhere and moving them into it. I really can't help you their, but it does seem that if the comb is already built, that would leave less for the bees apart from the honey production?

As far as the CCD goes, I don't remember them ever finding the cause. I did some reading a few years back, and it seems that there were recorded instances of things that sounded just like it going way back... like back to colonial days. I really wish there was a clear answer to your question...