Drone brood removal method
- Female mites invading drone cells produce about twice as many offspring as those invading worker cells. Not surprisingly, mites are found 8 - 15 times as often on drone brood as on worker brood. You can exploit this difference as part of an IPM program for control of V. destructor. The drone brood removal method has been found to significantly reduce mite levels and to maintain strong populations during the summer and early fall. This is the time when many colonies succumb to mites, a phenomenon known as ‘summer or fall collapse’.
- You will need 4 drone combs per colony to use this method. Cull worker combs in the brood nest that have more than 2 square inches of drone cells. Place two drone combs in the upper brood chamber of your hive - below any excluder. Visit your colony every 26 - 30 days and remove the drone combs. Replace them with empty drone combs or drone combs that you removed on the previous replacement date. Take the combs of capped drone brood back to your home and place them in the freezer. Keep them there until you are ready for your next exchange. Be sure to visit your bees every 26 - 30 days to exchange drone combs because you don't want too many drones actually emerging in your hive.
- You can exchange combs up to six times a season in Ithaca, NY. The more often you exchange them, the more you will suppress the mite population. We keep two drone combs in each hive year round. We keep them 2 or 3 combs in from each side of the upper brood chamber and below the excluder. We exchange drone combs on May 15, June 15, July 15, August 15 and September 15. Of course, you may need to adjust this schedule to your particular location.
- Do not leave drone combs in a colony if you do not intend to exchange them on schedule.
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