-- Eric Brown <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I suspect your explanation is misleadingly simplistic.

>>>i'm quite sure it is a simplistic explanation, but (especially given the other data that has been posted), but i'm not really sure why you think it's misleading.

Most to the point, interspersing empty frames into an established brood nest isn't natural and it leads to unnaturally high levels of drones/drone brood/drone comb/mites.

>>>there is lots about beekeeping that isn't natural (ummm, foundation, smoke, movable comb, rotating and culling comb, harvesting honey, queen rearing, swarm prevention, starting hives from packages, requeening, etc)..and i do all of the above (except for the foundation thing).  if you are in north central mass, i'd be happy to show you about 20 2-3 deep hives full of comb that has in the neighborhood of 15% drone comb...not 30-40....all done by feeding empty frames into the broodnest.  i'm not sure on what rational the "unnaturalness of feeding empty frames into the brood nest" is somehow worse than "the unnaturalness of using nucs and swarms to draw comb for your established colonies".

>>>i'm not sure why you are so quick to discount my experience, especially when you already said you've never done this and let the drone brood actually emerge.  i would guess that drone production is similar to something like pollen foraging...in that just as the trapping of pollen causes more bees to forage for pollen, killing the drones leads to the impulse to rear more and more drones, and therefore encouraging the drawing of more and more drone comb.  ...this is nothing more than a guess based on my own experience, and what you report.

deknow

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