Blank> > I found several colonies in my operation last summer that
> > I had inadvertently left drone trap frames in through the
> > season, without removal, other than twice in the spring.
> > Those colonies did not exhibit higher mite levels than
> > "control" colonies side by side.  Indeed, some of them had
> > extremely low mite levels, despite the presence of a drone frame!
>
> >This is another very unusual report.

This may be a very important observation, perhaps it is only necessary to remove a couple of cycles to get the mite level to where it is acceptable for the rest of the season? More research here?

> > Also, as one gets further
> into summer, I'd expect less and less interest in
> re-drawing the cut-out drone frame, and more re-use
> of wax to rework existing worker cells into drone cells.

Removing the frames all season it amazes me how late they still wish to have drones, most to late August. That's quite a few cycles of removal when one starts in April. (that's OK with me though, a good market available). Suggest anyone doing this look up the Asian Community, it's a delicacy.  I try to get all my drone frames to the outer wall at seasons end so thy are not to inclined to start raising drones before I can get to the hives in spring. They get moved in a couple of places on first visit.

Alden Marshall
Hudson, NH


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