Back from vacation, so I'll attempt again to describe what
happens when one tries to make drone brood removal "scale up"
to hundreds of colonies. 

Long story short, you can make this scale up if you are 
"perfect" on timing, and kill the drone brood by freezing,
thus preserving the drawn comb itself.  The Germans
covered all this ground in the late 1990s, so an adequate
set of existing studies and documentation has been
around for a while.

The problem of "how to freeze" is the sticking point.
The best I could do was to utilize compressed CO2
tanks as if they were oversized fire extinguishers,
but even this was "expensive".


Dave Cushman said:

> It is possible for a Langstroth frame to be built out in 
> about one hour from a pencil thickness bead of wax, 

Isn't this merely because that "pencil thickness" of wax 
is all the wax needed to draw out the entire frame?
If the bees have to make the wax themselves, the
process takes a bit longer, and does not happen at
all if there is no bloom to provide fresh nectar.
This is why the bees rework worker brood comb into
drone comb as a direct result of cutting out drone
comb, as the wax is the scarce resource.

Randy said:

> What I said, Jim, was "I find that by giving them a place to 
> do so, they don't build it elsewhere.  Seeley, in the study 
> that you cited, found the same to be true."  I didn't say 
> anything about removing it.

The complete, in-context statement from your post of 
Dec 19th was as follows:

>> I only cut drone cells out of the drone trap frames the Brian 
>> and I were speaking of.  We do indeed want the bees to draw 
>> replacement drone comb in them.  I find that by giving them 
>> a place to do so, they don't build it elsewhere.  Seeley, in
>> the study that you cited, found the same to be true.

"Cutting out" cells would be "removing" them.
But your experience does not have to match my
experience, nor does it have to match Seeley's.  

I said:

>> I call drone frames "varroa hand grenades".

Randy answered:

> I too was of that opinion until I obtained 
> empirical data from field observations.  

Quite a few beekeepers keep decent notebooks, so
many opinions are backed up by "empirical data 
from field observations". Most of us still 
call them mere "opinions" as we realize that 
such observations lack controls, consistent 
methodologies, and often, statistical 
significance.

But I'd love to see some of that empirical data, 
if you have some.  I love counter-intuitive claims!


Randy said:

> Or it could be that the occasional removal of a
> drone comb is enough to disrupt the mite 
> reproductive cycle enough to be of benefit.

This does not match my "empirical data from field 
observations", nor does it match the observations
of many others, both in Germany and in the US, 
hence the universal focus on timing, timing, timing.  
Perhaps your area has different conditions from the 
rest of the country, but most places, letting drone 
frames hatch out is going to result in a massive 
increase in the number of mites.
  
> Again, we need much more field data.  I have 
> completely given up on common sense, and now 
> only trust actual field data.

My impression has been that the bulk of the
"common sense" comes from actual field data.

But again, I'd love to see your data.

Drone removal as practiced in Germany requires
too much labor to "scale up".  Any reduction 
in the labor required would help.

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