# Drone-comb Varroa Trapping



## Finman (Nov 5, 2004)

When you have bare bees, it is easy to kill mites from bees with some treatment. You take queen away and give treatment: lactic acid, oxalic acid ... So so see how much you have.

If you dont like that, give drone are to bees. 
You put medium foundation to Langstroth frame. So they have a gap wher they make drone cells. But I suppse that mites go into worker cells at first because they develope faster.


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

>I've got that they are capped on day 9-10 and emerge on day 22-23.

Pretty much yes, from when the egg hatches. Without consulting my notes I think from when the egg is laid (day 0) they're capped on day 9 or 10 and emerge on day 24 so you've got a week there to play with.

At least the first time around, you've got to factor in the time it takes them to draw the drone comb out.

Personally Waya, I'd let your packages build up some and get established before giving them drone comb, especially if you're starting them on foundation and even if you're giving them some drawn comb. Package populations dwindle quite a bit for the first 4-6 weeks as older bees die off and before new bees emerge, depending on how you introduce your queen. If you're starting them on some drawn comb they'll get on their feet a little faster but I still wouldn't want them to waste their resources on drone brood at a time when they need new workers, and lots of them.

I'm getting a package on April 22 myself and don't plan on giving them any drone comb for a couple of months. By then they should be booming.

George-


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I would go for two weeks, then if you forget you can get them on three.


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## wayacoyote (Nov 3, 2003)

Sounds good, Michael.

Thanks, George.
These will be given drawn comb all around (SC worker with pollen and honey, and LC Drone with brood ). You're right, putting a burden on a package would not be nice. I'm glad you brought that up. 
All they'll have to do with the drone larvae is cap it if I get it into an existing hive say 9 days in advance. Would that do? Or still too harsh for a package?

Waya


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

>All they'll have to do with the drone larvae is cap it if I get it into an existing hive say 9 days in advance. Would that do? Or still too harsh for a package?

I'll be honest Waya, I'll be hiving my first package this spring







you'll have to get some opinions from people that actually know what they're talking about. I have heard that a 3# package with say, 10,000 bees in it will dwindle by a good 1/3 in the first 4-5 weeks before new brood emerges and starts to make up the difference. You can cut this time by using drawn comb and releasing the queen immediately. I guess I'd still be more inclined to jump start the package than I would be thrashing the varroa, assuming you even have an appreciable varroa population in your package to start with. You could be bleeding before you're shot.

That said, I like the way you're thinking. A newly hived package is the perfect situation for varroa treatment, and taking a frame of drone larvae from another hive and putting it into your new package hive for them to cap, why those varroa won't stand a chance. This is the premise behind the Dutch/NZ method of splitting for varroa control.


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## wayacoyote (Nov 3, 2003)

George, 
That's what I was thinking to (Dutch/ NZ method).

And, funny thing, this will be MY first packages too. I'm interested in how clumsy I'll turn out to be with what is considered a newbee's skill.

Waya


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## All Organic Bees (Apr 29, 2006)

Hi guys,
Why not spray the bees with sucrocide mite spray.
It is a totaly organic spray that kills 98% or more of varoa mites. It is a little time consuming but I know of several other beekeepers who do it. You do not need to take the queen out, matter of fact you can spray her if you want to. You can fnd out more at by clicking here. They say in the article that you need to spray the bees three seperate times, but that is only if there is capped brood in the hive. I did it and it works well.


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## Dave W (Aug 3, 2002)

Micah . . .

I used Suckercide for an entire season. I pulled frames and I sprayed between frames.

Based on weekly mites counts from entire year before treatment, and numbers during treatments, and then AFTER treatments, Suckercide was NOT shown to be effective (hive died following winter).


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## Flewster (Nov 3, 2003)

I had good succes with sucrocide and like it for its organic properties.......but I must admit I LOVE my SC bees because they require NO treatments.


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## Finman (Nov 5, 2004)

Spring and summer is difficult time to cure varroa because mites are mostly under brood caps. 
Here is method how to catch 95% of mites away from colony with drone brood. 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/dronemethod.html 
.


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## Dave W (Aug 3, 2002)

Flewster . . .

Please explain the connection of "good succes with sucrocide" and "SC bees require NO treatments".

thanx.


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