A senior beekeeper at Field Day one year told me that in this era of beekeeping, all colonies have mites. The problem is what happens when the mite population gets out of control. Convinced I couldn’t possibly have mites in my hives, I randomly did a check to prove myself right. Not only were there mites, but they were having a party with every mite from a twenty-state area. It was quite depressing—almost as depressing as finding those hives dead this spring because they never did recover last fall (I suspect) from a summer of mites. This year I’m being proactive, and I’m using plastic drone comb. The Theory Behind Drone Comb Drone brood removal is based on three aspects of the mite’s biology: • Mites spend most of their time in capped brood cells.
• Mites can be found 5–12 times as often in cells with drone brood as in those with worker brood. • Mites using worker brood as a host average 1.3–1.4 offspring, while those using drone brood average 2.2–2.6 offspring. So, by removing capped drone brood from an infected colony, you remove a disproportionately large number of mites without affecting the worker population, and you remove those mites with the highest fecundity (from Drone Brood Removal for the Management of Varroa destructor, Nicholas W. Calderone, Cornell University Master Beekeeper Program) Using Drone Comb This non-chemical method has its advantages, a primary one being that you can use it throughout honey production season. Being new to this, here’s how I went about it. Obtain Drone Comb Drone comb, which has a larger cell size, comes in a plastic frame (link to item No. 420 and 420-M); you may also obtain drone foundation for insertion into a standard frame.
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Another option is to encourage bees to make drone comb. Place a medium or shallow frame in a deep box; chances are they’ll draw out the remaining space in drone-sized comb. Cisco anyconnect os x mavericks specifications. Generally, two per established colony.
I’ve got two in the upper deeps of each of my established hives. When to Add Early in the season when bees are busy drawing comb, not focused on filling it. You can add it later (like when you know you have a problem), but this is about prevention. It is easier to never let the mite population build up than work to knock it down. Where to Add Like everything in beekeeping, there are varying opinions on this. Cornell University’s Master Beekeeping Program recommends adding it one or two frames from the edge; many other have had success adding them in the middle of the brood nest. Find a method that works for you.