>The higher rate of brood cell invasion into drone cells by Varroa mites can
>partly be explained mechanically. When you consider that a mite has to be
>brought by a bee to a suitable brood cell, the almost two times bigger area
>of the drone brood cell will attribute to this higher rate. Moreover, drone
>cells are already invaded from more than two days before the brood cells are
>capped, while worker brood cells are invaded from about 1/2 a day before
>capping. In this way a higher drone brood cell invasion rate of about 8 times
>can be expected. However, drone brood cells are invaded at a 12 times higher
>rate compared to worker brood cells. A qualitative or quantitative chemical
>difference may explain the yet unexplained part of the higher invasion rate
>into drone brood cells.
>
Would it be practical if a company would make an  all plastic frame with
drawn foundation that say 1/2 of it was worker cells and the other half was
drone cells and the drone cell part was removable. Put one of these frames
in a hive to encourage the queen to lay most of her drones in these
removable cells. Once they are capped they could be popped out and
"sterilized". I realize this would be impractical for large scale operations
but it might work for the hobbist and small scale operations.
 
God Bless,
Kelley Rosenlund
Gainesville, Fla. U.S.A.