>The higher rate of brood cell invasion into drone cells by Varroa mites can >partly be explained mechanically. When you consider that a mite has to be >brought by a bee to a suitable brood cell, the almost two times bigger area >of the drone brood cell will attribute to this higher rate. Moreover, drone >cells are already invaded from more than two days before the brood cells are >capped, while worker brood cells are invaded from about 1/2 a day before >capping. In this way a higher drone brood cell invasion rate of about 8 times >can be expected. However, drone brood cells are invaded at a 12 times higher >rate compared to worker brood cells. A qualitative or quantitative chemical >difference may explain the yet unexplained part of the higher invasion rate >into drone brood cells. > Would it be practical if a company would make an all plastic frame with drawn foundation that say 1/2 of it was worker cells and the other half was drone cells and the drone cell part was removable. Put one of these frames in a hive to encourage the queen to lay most of her drones in these removable cells. Once they are capped they could be popped out and "sterilized". I realize this would be impractical for large scale operations but it might work for the hobbist and small scale operations. God Bless, Kelley Rosenlund Gainesville, Fla. U.S.A.