drone trapping... freezing or removing

[malabarchillin]

Those that use drone brood to trap varroa. If you freeze the frame and then return it to the hive
do you uncap it or rely on the hygenic  behavior of the bees to open and remove the dead drones or do you just throw the comb away if you did not use plastic ? Throwing comb away would limit how often you could trap due to slow comb building with no flow. If your bees are not very hygenic do they take a loooong time, but eventually clean it all out ? Do you use drone foundation or go foundationless on that frame and hope they are in the mood to make drone comb or bite the bullet and just use plastic for that frame ? Does placement of the drone frame in the brood box make a large difference to encourage drone comb ?
Thanks

[Michael Bush]

It's a great test for hygienic behavior.  You'll know which queens to replace.  :)  And you'll save them having to rebuild the comb.

[Scadsobees]

If you cut it out and freeze it, it makes great fishing bait. :-D

If you just uncap it, any adult mites in there will just re-enter the hive.  Freezing is a good idea to kill the mites.  Freeze, then scratch the cappings.  They do fine on their own, though, usually without scratching.

If there is only one frame of drone brood, they will usually draw out a foundationless frame as drone comb.  Sometimes they will draw half worker brood, then you just have to cut out the drone stuff if possible.

Rick