I formed 2 nucs from 1 hive so now I have 3 . They are all doing fine. I seem to have queens. Anyhow my question is now that I don't need the drones anymore should I cut out any drone comb to reduce varroa mites? I use 10 frame deeps, top entrance, SBB,homemade powdered sugar every 10 days, leave them lots of honey and pollen,alternate a frame of small cell wax foundation with a frame of starter strip. I still have more mites than I think is okay!
Removing drone brood is a method or killing some mites but it is kinda labor intensive. I bought 2 of those green drone frames years ago and used them one. Not for me I guess. A break in the brood cycle helps a little also when you make splits and let them raise their own queen.
If there are a lot of mites in the drone brood, sure... but if not, I'd leave it.
Quote from: Michael Bush on May 23, 2011, 12:15:17 AM
If there are a lot of mites in the drone brood, sure
Michael, how do you know if there mites in the drone brood or not?
James
You take an uncapping fork and pull a bunch out and look. If they are heavily infested, you pull the rest out. Or if you don't have an uncapping fork, make do with something else.
Great answer. I'm going to do that.