DRONE COMB RESULTS

[COLVIN]

I PUT DRONE COMB IN ONE HIVE (ALL FULL FOUNDATION) AND 1/3 DRONE COMB IN A ANOTHER ( PER ADVISE OF FORUM). TOOK A MONTH FOR BEES TO EVEN DRAW IT OUTON FULL FRAME AND THE 1/3 ABOUT SAME BUT ALL THE WAY DOWN TO BOTTOM OF FRAME. THEN LAYING ONLY BEGAN ABOUT 3 WEEKS LATER. PATTERN IS VERY SPOTTY AND ALL OVER THE BOARD. TOOK OUT ABOUT ABOUT 50 DRONES OUT OF EACH FRAME AND FOUND NO VARROA, REPLACE DRONE FRAMES WITH NEW REGULAR FOUNDATION. QUESTION.-DO I PUT DRONE COMB BACK IN HIVE OR LEAVE ALONG AND OXALIC TREAT IN FALL ?. ALSO I PUT ONE THIRD STRIP OF DRONE COMB IN ONE HIVE AND IT DREW IT OUT ALL THE WAY DOWN. SHOULD I HAVE ATTACHED IT TO REGULAR DRAWN COMB?  I AM NOT SURE IF I UNDERSTAND THE PLACING OF THE COMB .

COLVIN

[Finsky]

If you did not se singns from varroa, you can relax.  You may leave issue to autumn.

Usually queen lays eggs very likey to drone combs all the same where they are.

[Brian D. Bray]

The idea behind the use of Drone combs is to have two per hive and rotate them.  When 1 is pulled to freeze put the 2nd in its place.  If you didn't see any in the drome pupae you pulled you don't have much of a varroa problem at the moment so using the drone comb on that hive might not even be necessary.  So you have 2 options: Make the use of drone comb a standard operating procedure or attack the problem when it is most likely to impact the hive, spring and fall.

[fuzzybeekeeper]

I put an empty frame in the middle of the broodnest and the bees built a full frame of drone comb.  I removed it yesterday before the drones hatched and examined a lot of the brood.  About 20% had one mite each on them.

Question:

I know the adult female enters the cell before it is capped.  She then lays eggs on the pupa and they hatch.  When I pull a pupa in the purple eye stage out and I find one mite, is this the adult female that entered the cell or is this the result of the eggs she laid?  If it is the original adult, when will the eggs appear?  If this is the offspring, what happened to the adult (where did she go?  Did she die?) and why aren't there more than one mite to make increase for them?  Or does she lay eggs and then leave before the cell is capped?  

I have never seen this explained.

Fuzzybeekeeper

[Finsky]

I the cell before it is capped.  She then lays eggs on the pupa and they hatch.  When I pull a pupa in the purple eye stage out and I find one mite, is this the adult female that entered the cell or is this the result of the eggs she laid?  

Here is varroa life cycle
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pest&disease/sl13.html
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/PDFs/Varroa_Mites_PMP1.pdf

What you ask is that mite goes into cell before capping. Female make several baby generations. In drone cell it has more time to make generations. More youg mites have time to become adult.

If you have only one mite inside capped cell it has not made eggs (for some reason)