Allen Drone tracheal trunks are accepted by tracheal mites as homes. The tubes are more spacious and a lot of mites can be accomodated. Drone thorax sections are easy to view (by a bee examiner). It would seem that the longer life of drones might make them fertile ground for raising tracheal mites, however I've not seen any report of that. Also, I don't know if the usual "younger the more attractive" rule applies to drones (it does to queens). There has been contradictory evidence of colony mite prevalence for drones vs workers (some report higher, some lower). I'd expect that the prevalence in drones collected from a colony, is more a reflection of the average mite prevalence in the colonies of a whole apiary (which drift to various colonies), rather than the prevalence in the particular colony. regards Kerry Clark, Apiculture Specialist B.C. Ministry of Agriculture 1201 103 Ave Dawson Creek B.C. V1G 4J2 CANADA Tel (604) 784-2225 fax (604) 784-2299 INTERNET [log in to unmask]