Drone Production

[Broke-T]

I plan to raise queens this year for my own use. I plan to put drone foundation in a couple of Drone mother colonies to up the drone population.

My question is has anyone ever gotten in mite trouble this way? Using drone larva as a trap for mites thru removal of capped drone brood is part of IPM. They say dont let the drones hatch or you will have a mite explosion.

But for queen production you need the increase in drone production. This seems like a catch-22.

We have monitored mite levels and are using hive with low counts for queen and drone mother colonies.

Looking for opinions.

Johnny

[Velbert]

usually your first drone brood will not have near the mite count after your first drone comb is sealed place you a second built drone comb in place when it is sealed pull it out usually this second drone comb will have lot more mites in it but before you leave it out i would do a mite check in the brood randomly uncap and pull the pupa out and look for mites 1 cell out of 10 cells with a mite you have a 10% infestation so uncap about 30 -40 cell to see what % infestation you have don't want over 15% or 20%. NOT OVER 15% is better.