# Wanting input on my drone frames.



## casinoken (May 6, 2012)

I placed a Pierco drone frame in each of my hives. I did this due to what I had seen and read about using them for mite contol. I have seen no presence of mites in my hives. Today, while checking my hives, I noticed that, for the most part, the drone frames have been drawn. When checking them, I noticed from egg all the way to capped brood. The bees have also filled a substantial amount of the frames with syrup. I checked the larva closely and still have not found sign of mites. Should I pull these frames and freeze them now, or should I let some of the drones emerge? The reason I am undecided and asking for your input is my hives seem to have little to no drones. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.


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## rbsteve (May 23, 2012)

Have used drone comb past 3 years, once drawn out, eggs layed and larva than sealed in, take out and freeze. After 3 days in freezer, thaw out and just place back in hive, the bees clean it out and the queen will again lay into the drone comb. Somewhere in 25-30 day range. Have run 2-3 cycles of this process without apparent harm to colony. As the drone larva are more attractive to the mite, it's why drone comb used and why it helps lower mite counts in the colony. It's some work thou to manage the frame changes, etc.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Like RB said, wait til it's capped and maybe tack on a couple days. The mites go in just before capping but wait til the larvae is in full pupal stage before pulling some to check. If you're not seeing mites, I guess it's a good monitoring tool but seems kind of a waste unless you really think you have a mite problem.


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