Peter wrote

> We used two in each brood box, same as Tom, I think.

According to the reference in Randy's website, it was two combs in the top 
brood box.  I wonder how much the drone raising was curtailed by having them 
in the top brood box and not in the bottom one particularly when , as I have 
seen here in Australia, they tend to put honey in the top box of a two box 
brood system later in the season.

> We even bought barrels of syrup, but held off feeding because of the
> expected honey flow. If we had fed, maybe the bees wouldn't have quit
> raising drones, and the mites could have been trapped out late in the
> summer, when they start to get critical (at least here, in NY state).

From what I have read, and in my own experience, it is not the nectar (syrup 
in this case) that stimulates drone laying but the presence of pollen.  Not 
sure what your pollen supply was like at the time but in my experience when 
rearing drones, pollen patties help in having the queen lay eggs in the 
drone cells but syrup will also help as long as I fed patties.

Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA 

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