>
> > I cannot imagine how any operation of any size could keep up [drone
> trapping]


I'm in complete agreement, but also question whether it is even necessary.
Years ago, we started running a drone trap frame in every colony (not the
green ones), but soon found that much of the time it wasn't worth removing
them, since there simply were very few mites in them.

So we now leave the drone frames in all season long.  This may not apply to
others, but in my area, very few drones are reared after July 1st.  When we
first started doing this, we didn't notice any difference in mite buildup
between the hives with drone frames in, compared to those without.  What we
now do is to cut out the drone brood each spring after almond pollination,
when we split all of our hives.

What did occur to me is that I am simply managing *where* the drone comb is
in the hive, more so than the total amount of drone brood.  We sell a large
number of nucs each spring, and our buyers prefer combs without patches of
drone brood.  What we see is that so long as there is a drone comb in each
hive, the bees don't rework worker combs into drone comb.
-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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