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Date: | Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:02:04 -0500 |
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> yet simply cutting out whatever drone brood is there
> on regular inspections appears to help. I hope to
> run a controlled trial next season.
When "drone comb" was first made available in "deep
size" only, I looked at my operation, with nothing
but mediums, and tried taking a knife to my wax combs.
The problem was that cutting out drone cells assured
that the bees would both replace the cut-out comb area
with drone comb again, and also convert worker cells
to drone cells as a short-term reaction to the sudden
lack of drone brood.
The bees really want that drone brood. It is part
of their definition of "successful beekeeping", which
includes swarming, superceeding, and storing only
as much honey as they need to survive winter.
So, the long term impact of cutting out drone brood is
going to be a colony with more and more drone cells,
prompting more cutting, drifting in a slow spiral
towards having a significant fraction of drone comb.
The "honey supercell" drawn plastic comb denies the
bees the ability to make proper drone cells, so the
bees draw bridge and brace comb to get their drones.
Worse, having 20% drone comb in a colony (which Tom Seeley
stated was "normal" in his study) cut honey production in
half versus colonies where drone comb was kept to 5% or
less. Seeley did not remove the drone comb when capped,
so those practicing "drone removal" should see less
difference, but feeding drone brood through the capping
stage is "expensive" in both resources and labor.
http://www.apidologie.org/articles/apido/pdf/2002/01/Seeley.pdf
Even when I replaced brood comb with "too many drone cells"
with frames of drawn comb from last year's honey supers,
the bees still worked some cells into drone cells.
Another approach to "interrupting the brood cycle" might be
to treat with Oxalic acid in spring/summer, which would kill
most of the open brood along with the varroa.
Seems too draconian to me.
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