Hi All

Jim brings in the need for drones...

This is one of my hobby horses, not only do we require plenty of drones, 
they have to be fully fit and fertile.

It is all to common for queens to be raised on the assumption that there 
will be enough males around to do the job, but if you raise queens, you 
also need to raise drones.

 > This means having dedicated drone-rearing colonies.  The somewhat
 > new drone-sized foundation makes this easier than it used to be.

In one sense it does make things easier, but take a look at how nature 
does the job...

When a colony feels the need for drones it will draw patches of such 
cells (usually about the area of a human palm) and these patches will be 
placed in the nest structure in such a way as they come into play at the 
right time during nest expansion.

Rather than use full sheets of drone foundation, splice in artificial 
'patches' using a cookie cutter formed from a fruit can or put 
triangular pieces of drone foundation in the upper corners of brood frames.

In raising drones you also need to be aware of previous treatment dates 
for the colonies, as many anti varroa compounds render the drones less 
fertile than you might think. This gets embarrassingly obvious when you 
are trying to demonstrate II and all the drones come up dry !


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
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