# killing drone brood



## jmgi (Jan 15, 2009)

What do you think the minimum time it would take to kill drone brood in the freezer and get it back on the hive? John


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## Mbeck (Apr 27, 2011)

I have no experience with trying to quickly kill drone brood in the freezer .

I would think you could drop the frames in an ice bath and they would die really quick.
10 min to dead + 20 to come back to ambient temp?

I have green frames on all my hives, tried the freezer to much work.
I scrape capping off a corner of drone brood as I go if I see mites I scrape the whole frame.

I have no idea if it's working but suspect it may be a helpful management stategy.


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## BayHighlandBees (Feb 13, 2012)

I don't know but its not as fast as feeding them to the chickens!



jmgi said:


> What do you think the minimum time it would take to kill drone brood in the freezer and get it back on the hive? John


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

24 to 48 hours will kill the pupa and the varroa in the cells.


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## wannabeefarms (Apr 17, 2012)

I second feeding them to chickens. I was impressed with how efficiently they can clean up a frame. It saves the be bees from having todo it.


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## AntonioZangara (Apr 24, 2012)

I cut drones comb every week or 10 days but i think that i'm selecting mites attracted from worker cells. Who think that like me? sorry for my bad english.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Yes, you are, but will the bees adapt to the mites faster than the mites can adapt to your killing the drone brood? I am betting on the bees, but may be wrong.

Crazy Roland


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## AntonioZangara (Apr 24, 2012)

Roland said:


> Yes, you are, but will the bees adapt to the mites faster than the mites can adapt to your killing the drone brood? I am betting on the bees, but may be wrong.
> 
> Crazy Roland


The mite is the number one of adaptions laws. in italy we have the CAMPERO's fame. is a frame with 3 windows and we cut a portion of male brood every 8 days, but after years of this practice we are getting varroas that are having a smaller reproduction cycle .They can reproduce in less days and trasmitting "in a stable way" those genes because mites make sex with theyres childs (same blood).

The mites of today are different as thee mites of the first invasions. Now are chemical resistant,faster, and probably they are getting longer hairs for survive to sugardusting. I'm not promoting the use of organig acids in liquid form, like oxalic, but we need a good way to killi the 90% of mites in 24-36h. Not so much for the mites but for the 30 viruses they bring.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

I wrote:

I am betting on the bees, but may be wrong.

Guess I am wrong, time for Plan B.

Crazy Roland


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

AntonioZangara said:


> ...we need a good way to killi the 90% of mites in 24-36h.


Anything that does that is going to be a treatment of some sort or another. What we need is for more people to head toward Roland's direction in management. It's a great way to start. Ultimately, the only solution is to leave it up to the bees. There's no reason they can't do it on their own, even without screened bottom boards, killing drone brood, or breaking the brood cycle. People have been telling me that I can't do it or that I'm just an aberration for years, but I just keep getting bigger using no other method for disease control than selective breeding.


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