Where to put drone found.?

[Pooh]

I'm going to do the bait with drone foundation, wait till capped and remove, freeze, etc. I bought some Pierco green plastic drone frames. Is one per hive enough or is two needed. Can I put them only in the top brood chamber for ease of access? I was thinking about putting them the second or third frame in, suggestions? Thanks...Pooh

[George Fergusson]

I'm going to do the bait with drone foundation, wait till capped and remove, freeze, etc. I bought some Pierco green plastic drone frames. Is one per hive enough or is two needed. Can I put them only in the top brood chamber for ease of access? I was thinking about putting them the second or third frame in, suggestions? Thanks...Pooh

I'd say 1 frame per hive would be sufficient. Bees will rear drones anywhere but like to raise them around the edges of the brood nest rather than right in the middle, if you give them the chance. I'd think you'd have better results putting the frame up against the brood nest, perhaps as you suggest, in the second or third position, rather than right in the middle. I try not to disturb the brood nest if at all possible.

I'd put them in the bottom box unless their broodnest includes a significant portion of the upper box in which case, you could put it up there. FWIW, I've only had success with drone brood trapping of mites using short frames i.e., putting medium frames in a deep body. They draw drone comb underneath them which I cut off when they've got it capped. The only time I put whole frames of drone foundation in my hives they either ignored it completely, or drew it out and filled it with honey :)

So apparently, there's both a time and a place for drone brood trapping of mites. Earlier in the season and in the brood nest is best- by mid-summer they're not so fired up to rear drones.

Read up here- good information about this procedure:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/dronemethod.html

Good luck!

[sqkcrk]

You may have to get the comb drawn out on a nectar flow and then extract it so you can then put it where the queen will lay in it. Like you said, third frame in from the outside edge is probably good.

Last week I was talking to a friend of mine who had purchased drone comb from me to replace drone comb that he had sold with the nucs.( Not complete drone combs, partial ones.) He needs drones to mate with the queens he raises.

So I asked him about putting 3 or 4 drone combs in one hive. He said that generally this won't work. I guess they fill some w/ honey and some with drones.

And drone laying workers don't necesarily produce health drone, I've been told. But I don't know why. Wouldn't drones from workers have genes of the mother queen?

[George Fergusson]

And drone laying workers don't necesarily produce health drone, I've been told. But I don't know why. Wouldn't drones from workers have genes of the mother queen?

I think laying workers usually lay in worker cells? I don't imagine you'd get good healthy drones out of worker cells. I suppose if a worker laid an egg in a drone cell and the egg police didn't remove it, it would turn into a perfectly good drone... right?