How much drone combs affect on honey yield

[Finsky]

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I suppose that in this reseach 20% means that if you have 10 brood frame and 2 of these are droneframes (to catch mites) you loose a lot of honey.

And if you have natural combs in hive, same happens.

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Thomas D. Seeley

Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
(Received 15 May 2001; revised 28 August 2001; accepted 16 November 2001)

Abstract
This study examined the impact on a colony's honey production of providing it with a natural amount (20%) of drone comb. Over 3 summers, for the period mid May to late August, I measured the weight gains of 10 colonies, 5 with drone comb and 5 without it. Colonies with drone comb gained only 25.2  16.0 kg whereas those without drone comb gained 48.8  14.8 kg. Colonies with drone comb also had a higher mean rate of drone flights and a lower incidence of drone comb building. The lower honey yield of colonies with drone comb apparently arises, at least in part, because drone comb fosters drone rearing and the rearing and maintenance of drones is costly. I suggest that providing colonies with drone comb, as part of a program of controlling Varroa destructor without pesticides, may still be desirable since killing drone brood to kill mites may largely eliminate the negative effect of drone comb on honey yields.

http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/apido/abs/2002/01/Seeley/Seeley.html

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[Brian D. Bray]

So Finsky,

2 frames of drone comb in each hive body, isn't that excessive?  I use, at the most, 1 per brood box.  Me thinks their study is in need of further study with more variables.

[Michael Bush]

Interesting but that's been the assumption for centuries.  I've seen studies that had the opposite results.  That proved that more drones and more drone comb made them more productive.

But then drone TRAPPING is obviously a cost of resources.  They just keep spending the resources to get a frame of brood and don't get any brood at all.

[Finsky]

2 frames of drone comb in each hive body, isn't that excessive?  .

In that research  it was 2 brood box and drone frame on each  side wall. Altogether there  was 4 drone frames.
http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/apido/pdf/2002/01/Seeley.pdf?access=ok

It is much but it was natural amount what researcher used.  I use  1/3 drone gap in foundation and I use 2 frames. It is under one frame per hive.
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