# Small Cell Drone Comb



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Do mites reproduce in CS drone brood as readily as larger cell drone brood?

I have no specific measurements on capping and post capping times on small cell drones. It would be difficult to come up with meaningful numbers since the size of the drone cells in natural comb varies so greatly. Much more so than workers. Some of it is smaller though, since the bees do seem to key off of their own size on building drone cells. There are definitely both larger and smaller drones in a small cell hive than I see in a large cell hive, with most smaller.

> If so, since that's where the mites prefer to reproduce, how does SC really help that much?

Preference is one thing, but there are still far more worker cells than drone cells. The opportunities are easier in the worker cells. The damage done to a few drones isn't as significant for the hive as the damage done to the workers.

> Is it important to keep drone comb to a minimum with SC?

IMO, no. The bees will rear the same number of drones no matter what you do.

Levin, C.G. and C.H. Collison. 1991. The production and distribution of drone comb and brood in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies as affected by freedom in comb construction. BeeScience 1: 203-211.


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## peggjam (Mar 4, 2005)

Considering that in a normal parisite/host relationship, the ulitimate aim of the parisite is not to cause the demise of the host, but only to feed off the host. SC helps in that it makes smaller workers, which have less space in the cells for the mites to reproduce in, which in turn refocuses the mites attention on the drone cells which are larger, and are their natural targets within the colony to begin with.


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## wayacoyote (Nov 3, 2003)

While I'm not totally certain Why varroa select drone over worker cells (time or size), I'm convinced that, if they prefer the greater over the lesser, reducing the size/time of the lesser should frustrate the varroa all the more. 

All that said, I'd like to know HOW varroa select drone over workers. If this can be assertained, then determining if there's a significant difference in the same causes between the LC and SC worker should prove something. 

Waya


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