>>As far as feeding back the drones to the bees, they eat the drones and
>derive food value from them. This is true.

>Is this not a bit risky in view of diseases?

This is certainly a valid question. I was brought up to believe that honey
bees could clean up just about any mess. I've seen swarms clean out winter
killed hives in a few days. I always thought that cleaning hideous messes
without complaining was something bees do -- that we can learn from! 

Obviously interchanging frames between hives is one of the main ways
diseases are transmitted. Many people have advocated the plan of never
exchanging equipment to prevent spreading disease. To do this would be to
basically give up most of the beneficial manipulations to gain a little.

Since bees are predisposed to remove the hive garbage by eating it, their
systems must be capable of neutralizing the infectious material to a certain
extent. Also, they are always poking around in weak and diseased hives, so
if there is anything around, they'll get it without our help.

This is a question each must answer for themselves, to interchange or not?

pb

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