Pete, I do so appreciate how you take the time to post papers that are
likely to engender discussion!

I found Seeley's meticulous study to be of great interest, and spent quite a
bit of time going through it back when I was researching drone brood trap
frames.  Since that time, there have been some excellent studies by some of
his students on the regulation of drone brood rearing in hives.

Due to such innate regulation of drone brood (by both the workers and the
queen), the striking differences in honey production come as a bit of a
surprise.  Perhaps, all Allen suggests, the placement of the combs right
into the midst of the broodnest overrode the normal limitation of drone
rearing, and additionally limited the production of worker brood that would
have later become foragers.

>
> > By the end of August 2000, in 3 of 5 colonies with drone comb, but only 1
> of 5 without drone comb, the mite count on the sticky board was greater than
> 100, indicating a heavy infestation of mites.


This finding also surprised me, as I would have expected there to be a far
greater difference in mite levels!  Note that although there were, on the
average, more mites in the drone-comb hives, the mite levels between the two
groups still were not significantly different!

Also note the surprisingly high mite drop in one of the colonies (271 in 48
hr) only three months after Apistan treatment!  Either the Apistan had
failed to effect a good kill, or that colony picked up additional mites by
robbing or drift.

With such high mite levels, we now understand that there were likely virus
issues in those highly-infested hives, which can have a substantial effect
upon honey production, due to early death of foragers.  Thus, it may be
difficult to separate out the effect of viruses from that of the amount of
drones.  Seeley left open such a possibility in his discussion, although he
did not mention viruses, which were only beginning to be understood at that
time.

What is of great interest in the paper for those mathematically inclined, is
his analysis of the energy needs of drones as a burden to the colony.

Randy Oliver

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