>My point exactly, Joe!  By providing a drone comb, you restrict where the
>bees tend to build drone cells.

And encouraging bees to build drone where you 
want it, -is IMO key to success in beekeeping.

When I inspect newbees colonies, I tend to find 
many frames being used that are so spattered
with drone cells that they should be thrown into 
the solar melter.  Using such comb is costly to the 
colony in many ways.

I would support the use of drone comb as one 
method of providing space for drone cells.

The method I adopted is to cut 10% space into
each frame.  This serves the purpose of providing
nearby available drone cells no matter where the
cluster happens to be positioned in the hive.  

Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/

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