I am in Oakland and getting my hive ready for winter. I have been using a drone comb trapping and the powdered sugar method to manage the mite population. Should I continue using the drone frame to manage mites over the winter? thanks.
I've been wondering what to do with the green drone trap frames come spring...
They converted them to storage frames over the winter, as predicted by Glock & merince, but is there a way to know when they'll convert them back to drone raising? Will that occur before the optimal time for swarming/mating? Will I be able to get back into my hives to check the status of these frames? I'd hate to have them used to rear a nice large crop of Varroa to start things out on the wrong foot! It's still only January, and my bees are not getting too busy for another few months, I expect, but I want to be ready to move when I should.
Any experiences with green drone comb (coming out of the winter) to share?
I'm not an expert but down the coast a little in Santa Barbara my hive is very active and bringing in lots of pollen. I've been seeing drones for weeks now hanging out front and dead on the ground. My impression is we don't have much of a winter here and less of one this year in particular. Today the high was 90 degrees and last night it got down to 50 degrees. I would think you could get some drones in your drone frames now in some parts of the country. IMHO.
Once the brood rearing gets going in the spring, the stores tend to disappear lightning fast, starting with the stores in or next to the brood nest. Once they are ready to raise drones, they will clean out the drone cells and you can start trapping again.
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