With regard to the view that reducing drones is a valid Varroa control, David writes "Following this thread brings to mind a question I raised some time ago and didn't get an answer. While I now agree with the premise of reducing drones as a means of controlling Varroa mites. What are queen breeders to do? We need as many drones as we can get, even to the point of raising drones from drone mother hives. Any one got any suggestions?" Before making a suggestion that may work...I, for one, do not agree that reducing drones is a valid method of controlling Varroa. In the November issue of ABJ is an article on controlling Varroa without fluvalinate, formic acid, essential oils, etc. The author maintains that he has controlled Varroa for several years solely by "trapping" Varroa on drone brood, and then destroying the brood! He is doing the opposite of reducing drone brood. He is deliberately increasing the amount of drone brood to attract mites to the drone brood (where they are subsequently destroyed), rather than the worker brood. IMHO, the colony collapses we have all seen in July/August is because there is not sufficient drone brood for the mites, so they infest worker brood as a second choice. We are each entitled to our views, and mine is that if we eliminate drone brood in an attempt to control mites, the effect will be to put the mites onto worker brood and the hives will collapse sooner rather than later. David, I am no expert on queen raising, but I know two breeders in the North who are. Both think that one of today's problems with queens is that there are insufficient drones, because the feral drones have been eliminated. Both use drone brood foundation to increase the number of drones. Two frames per deep is standard. There is some thought that since good Carnolians stop raising brood in Northern climates, their hives have fewer mites in the spring than do hives of Italians. One of the two breeders raises exclusively New World Carnolians's, and the other relies heavily on NWC's. If drone producing hives show any sign of Varroa, strips are immediately inserted. (Regardless, these hives are not used for honey production.) Hope this helps, Lloyd [log in to unmask] Owner, Ross Rounds(tm) the finest in comb honey production.