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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Marty Hanks <marty AT justbeenc.com>
  • To: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: NC Beekeepers Orange County <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] cleaning drone frames
  • Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2013 21:38:10 -0400

Randall-all,

My experience is they might fill some with drones, yea there misbehaved queens for sure. BUT if they are putting drones in there i say take them out summer or early fall. i'd plan on replacing the queen with such a weird plan at laying drones, but with an estimated 3-4 thousand cells on one deep frame i'll take what i can get. If 80% of that is infected I feel its a good haul along with other treatment plans and well...that late in the season the drones will only deplete the food so they will be kicked out soon anyway. Point being maybe the drones are being laid as a trapping.

Any more updated research/studies to bees doing that (genetics) themselves? 

marty

I


On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 2:53 PM, Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:
Jerry,

When I pull drone frames, I usually leave them in the freezer until I'm ready to give them back to the hive. Then I let them warm up for a little while and put them in the hive for the bees to clean out, dead drones and all.

Otherwise I uncap the cells and bang them to force the drone pupae to pop out. Then I store them as I do any other empty brood comb.

One note about drone frames for varroa mitigation: this only works in the spring. Drone season is the same time as swarm season. Generally, well-behaved queens won't raise all that many new drones in the summer, and certainly not in the fall.

Note #2: drone-trapping may help against varroa in a small way as an on-going "supportive strategy" but if mite counts become alarming, it will be too late for them to make any difference.

Randall Austin


On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 1:43 PM, Jerry Schoendorf <jerry AT schoe.com> wrote:
A month ago during the nectar flow I added a green frame of drone foundation into a hive expecting that it would be drawn out and I could use it later in the summer/fall in case mite counts became alarming. About 21 days later it was fully drawn and filled. I removed it, froze it, wrapped it in plastic and went on vacation. Returning to the project a couple weeks later I found it was moldy and smelly. I hosed off the dead larvae and have put it in a light and air location for storage until it might be needed. I imagine that the bees will make short work of the rest of the cleaning.

However, it finally occurred to me that it would be good to ask how others clean up drone foundation?? Is there a better way??

Thanks!

Jerry
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Marty Hanks
Just Bee, Apiaries
 
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