Sid Pullinger wrote:
>
> <<<< However, I cannot find a supplier who sells
> drone comb foundation anymore.  I tried Dadant, Kelley, A.I.Root, and Mann
> Lake and struck out.  Anybody have any suggestions for finding drone
> foundation in the U.S?>>>>
>
> You don't need it.  Let the bees make their own.  If your brood combs are
> in good shape, all worker cells and no patches of drone, you can
> concentrate all the drone brood on to one comb.  I split a brood comb
> horizontally in two with a quarter inch strip of wood.  The bottom half is
> fitted with worker foundation and the top half is given a half inch starter
> strip fixed to the top bar.  Invariably the bees will turn the top half
> into drone comb and fill with eggs.  When capped this section is cut out,
> leaving the starter strip for next time, and checked for mites.
 
see the check frame on
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/index3.html   >>>visit the varroa
 
> The comb goes to the bird table and is quickly cleaned out.
 
you can eat it!!! it tast good!!
see the pictures on
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/index3.html
 
> I normally use two such
> combs for each hive, putting them in at intervals to get continuous
> production.  Drone production here is from April to mid July so if your
> season is the same you have left it too late for this year.
> If you raise your own queens and select fathers as well as mothers this is
> a good way to fill a hive with drones.  You can still check for the
> presence of mites by doing a one in ten sampling instead of destroying the
> comb.                   Sid P.
 
nice method Sid, well done.
friend here in Holland makes (wooden) thin removable droneframes.(a
quarter [or 1/3] of a normal frame)
He centrifuges the drone pulpa out (like honeyextration, but smaller)
with a old handdriving dillmachine.
 
When you use the drone method (a broodless period, with only drone pulpa
cells for the varroa) it is better to wire the frames.
To push the pulpa out, is a hard push (and more than one), without
wireing the combs will broke.
--
Jan Tempelman / Ineke Drabbe     |     EMAIL:[log in to unmask]
Sterremos 16               3069 AS Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Tel/Fax (SOMETIMES) XX 31 (0)10-4569412
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/index3.html