Drone brood removal

[snimmo243]

I know it is still early to consider this just now but does anyone have strong opinions (I know I shouldn't really ask that ) as to when the best time is to start this process using super frames?

Steven

[Jon]

I have slabs of drone brood in some of my colonies and Gerry mentioned the other week that some of his had drone brood and he is in Speyside.
Once your colony has about 5 frames of worker brood you could put a super frame at each side of the brood nest.
At this time of year it is almost certain that the comb they draw below the super frames will be drone cell.
Once it is capped you can remove it and scrape it off with the hive tool before replacing the super frame.

[drumgerry]

I must say drone brood removal isn't something I do a lot of. Unless there's a particular problem with varroa in a colony or for a completely different reason of taking most of that colony's drones out of the breeding pool. I don't just cull drone brood as a matter of course. Interested to hear others thoughts on this.

[snimmo243]

I've used this procedure previously, I have one hive that has a high count so particularly want to target that hive. Last time I used it the problem became evident in the middle of summer so there was already lots of Brood

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[Jon]

I'm with Gerry.
The drones are a precious resource and I would only cull drone brood if there was a clear varroa problem with no other alternative.
Something like MAQS used for a week would likely kill the mites. I haven't tried MAQS myself yet.

[drumgerry]

I've seen it taught to beginners to put a shallow frame (or two) into every brood box every Spring and it's never sat quite right with me. I understand the whole IPM logic but surely the old grey matter has to be applied as well! My own personal varroa situation seems, with the odd exception, to be kept within manageable proportions by Apivar in the Autumn and a midwinter oxalic trickle.

[Jon]

I skipped the autumn thymol treatment on my main apiary after taking careful mite counts. I did an Oxalic trickle late December and the apiary is booming at the moment.
First time I tried that but no apparent ill effects. I would not do that without the mite count data from samples of 300 bees.

[snimmo243]

My last count on 31 March showed a drop of 3.1 per day, this is the colony that dropped nearly 2500 in the three weeks after oxalic in january so I feel I need to do something. This colony currently has 4 frames of brood. My concern with maqs is the reported halt in laying at a time when I'm hoping to build up the colony to exploit osr. I don't know if anyone can allay my fears on this. For similar reasons I think the shallow frame is preferable to a trap as it allows the queen to continue laying workers, although I suppose this also makes it less efficient against varroa as well as the wasted (from the bees perspective) wax that continually has to be drawn

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[Jon]

Maqs treatment lasts a week and kills mites inside the cells.
I am amazed that colony is still alive after dropping 2500.
I lost a colony which dropped 800 mites in November and dwindled to nothing by February.

[snimmo243]

Hi Jon
The colony is not just alive it is doing better than my other colony which has consistently shown a zero drop except when treated

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