drone brood

[Sasha]

I was checking my hives and found two frames with complete drone brood in two hives.This two frames are completely drone brood.There is also some drone brood on other frames.I use foundationless frames.What should I do?Should I leave them,or freeze them in order to catch the varroa?

[Sundance]

Sounds like a good idea.

[Sasha]

What?To freeze it?

[Dave W]

Sasha . . .

>Should I leave them,or freeze them

If the drone brood HATCHES you'll have a lot of drones you may not want.

If the drone brood is now CAPPED, you could freeze it and kill any V-mites inside the cells.

Leave them - My questions are, where were these frames located in the hive (in brood nest, way up in honey supers, etc) and why do you have entire frames of drone brood.

[Michael Bush]

I'd move them to the oustside edge of the brood nest and let them emerge. The bees will then probably fill them with honey. Otherwise they will build more drone comb and make more drone brood to replace what you've taken.

[Sasha]

Otherwise they will build more drone comb and make more drone brood to replace what you've taken.

Yes,but wouldnt be a good thing to kill the varroa?
What is more important, let them have drones or eliminate varroa?
Hmm...

[Sasha]

Dave W
If the drone brood HATCHES you'll have a lot of drones you may not want.

If the drone brood is now CAPPED, you could freeze it and kill any V-mites inside the cells.

Sasha:Yes the brood is capped.

Leave them - My questions are, where were these frames located in the hive (in brood nest, way up in honey supers, etc) and why do you have entire frames of drone brood.

This frames are in the broodnest.I use foundationless frames,and I have such frames because bees thought it was a good idea. smile.gif

[Michael Bush]

>Yes,but wouldnt be a good thing to kill the varroa?

If you have a lot of varroa, yes.

>What is more important, let them have drones or eliminate varroa?

They WILL have drones. It's just a question of how much resources they have to spend to get them. I don't have a lot of varroa problems on natural cell size.