Hello Dave & All,
Using whole frames of drone foundation in the brood nest can disrupt the
nest significantly, the bees never do this themselves so why should a
beekeeper attempt it?

Placing three drawn drone comb  in the  brood nest is what Larry Conner
suggests in his series of articles for the drone rearing colony  and
removing  and replacing as needed.so the queen always has room to lay
drones.

And to agree with Dave I never put drone comb in the brood nest of my
production hives. Finding drone comb in the brood nest was one way we found
an amount of brood comb had been switched in some hives in California last
year in hives with unbranded frames.

 Dave said:
If you wish to encourage early drones for breeding you can prepare some
frames the previous season, by splicing triangular pieces of drone
foundation into the upper corners of part drawn frames so that they are
drawn and ready as the nest expands the following season.

The reason for the full comb is so you can remove the drone comb easily. My
guess is that if you do not put the drone comb in the path of the queen and
instead at the edge of the nest she will be less inclined to lay in the
cells.

Dave said;
However I should say my experiance here is in colonies dedicated to drone
raising rather than honey production

How do you set up a drone rearing colony which has no other purpose but to
produce large amounts of drones?

Bob
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