I have the wax-coated Plasticell foundation that came with my beekeeping starter kit and so far the bees seem ok with it and are building up nicely.
Since it is all the same size, where do the bees make cells for drones? I see that they have green drone foundation - what is it for? Should I have a frame of this for them?
The green Drone comb is mostly a varroa control device. If you have 2 of them you can wait until one is full then pull it, replace it with the 2nd, and freeze it and then return it to the hive after thawing it for a day when you're ready to pull the second one. Kills all the varroa in the drone cells. Bees will build about 20% drone comb in the brood area regardless of what you do.
though foundation cells are the same in their dimensions, they generally don't maintain their consistency when drawn out. Some become larger then others. The queen will inspect each cell prior to laying an egg. She determines, based on the interior dimensions of the cell, whether to lay a fertilized (worker) or unfertilized (drone) egg.
there are exceptions of course. Queens that didn't mate well enough may start to lay more and more drone eggs regardless of the dimensions. And then there is the case of laying workers.
But for the most part the drawn comb size determines the type of egg laid. Position on the frame may have an impact as well. Most of the cells in the middle are the smallest when drawn out. The drone frames usually end up on the bottom of the frames to the outside.
That green drone frame is green so that it is seen easily by the beekeeper for removal of drone comb for varroa control. The reason for the green colour. Beautiful and most wonderful day, Cindi
Bees will make plenty of drones no matter what you do. I wouldn't waste time worrying about it or putting special combs in, nor culling drone comb, unless you plan to do drone trapping.
Quote from: Michael Bush on May 13, 2008, 11:17:47 PM
nor culling drone comb, unless you plan to do drone trapping.
:? Am I missing something here? What the dickens is drone trapping? Beautiful and most wonderful of these days, love life. Cindi
Using drones to trap Varroa mites.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/dronemethod.html
Michael, thanks for clarifying. I did know about trapping mites using drone comb, it is just the expression kind of threw me off. Beautiful and most wonderful day, Cindi