At the recent Canberra DPI day seminar on varroa (good value despite undue emphasis IMO on synthetic pesticide control measures and other topics) I asked this same question and think Glenn's solution is much better than the DPI expert's answer, which was to just scratch off the wax and brood and start again with clean plastic foundation, which obviously entails reduction in stored honey and significantly more work for the bees drawing out the new comb. Another idea that might be worth trying is to use an old manual reversible tangential extractor to expel the drone remains, untried but if someone with access to an older tangential extractor could trial and report back that would be much appreciated.🙂
G'day James, I delivered some of that training myself & I agree with you. I am personally getting a much better understanding of Varroa by doing rather than reading or listening. Once the green combs are drawn all the bees have to do is clean them up & the queen should be laying in them within a day or two which makes the timing more accurate. Definitely less work for them. With regards to removing the contents I initially though that if I uncapped them while frozen they would just pop out like ice cubes but they are actually frozen into the cells. Hosing them out isn't my idea but its the best method I've found so far. I'm sure the extractor would work but its just a big mess to clean up.
@mt.corambaapiculture Fair point about clean up of a tangential extractor after spinning out the decapitated drones (if indeed that does work), I've used a pressure washer in similar situations to great effect, also the smaller size extractor required for this job can be readily inverted which would assist channelling this valuable resource into the compost heap, will be interesting to see if red wrigglers like 'em.
I replace it with another one. When the bees are making drones, e.g. spring-summer, they are always in there. It takes 24 days for a drone to develop from an egg to maturity/hatching. Drone cells are capped around the day 10 mark, which traps the mites, so frames can be swapped over between day 10 & day 24; however, I would wait until closer to day 24 so that most of the cells are capped. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/www.nationalbeeunit.com/assets/PDFs/3_Resources_for_beekeepers/Fact_Sheets/Fact_26_Using_Drone_Brood_Removal_as_a_Varroa_Control.pdf
great demo yet again glen , one question tho . are you going to rotate the frames back thru a super to draw them out again or wont there be time for that ,but i guess if they start storing nectar that screws the process . just thinking out loud on applying the method here really ,
Could you let me know where you got your black plastic from (Bunnings?) and what type/thickness of plastic? I have HiveIQ's and noticed the bees really like propolising the lid.
Yeah Bunnings etc. The thicker the better not sure how its measured. It certainly makes getting the lids off & back on much easier. I also put it down over the brood box in winter to keep the brood warmer just leave a gap for the bees to get up into the honey supers.
Thanks for sharing, great tips!
@@cheryleesbees thanks for your kind comments
Another really useful video. Thank you.
Thanks Jason.
At the recent Canberra DPI day seminar on varroa (good value despite undue emphasis IMO on synthetic pesticide control measures and other topics) I asked this same question and think Glenn's solution is much better than the DPI expert's answer, which was to just scratch off the wax and brood and start again with clean plastic foundation, which obviously entails reduction in stored honey and significantly more work for the bees drawing out the new comb.
Another idea that might be worth trying is to use an old manual reversible tangential extractor to expel the drone remains, untried but if someone with access to an older tangential extractor could trial and report back that would be much appreciated.🙂
G'day James, I delivered some of that training myself & I agree with you. I am personally getting a much better understanding of Varroa by doing rather than reading or listening. Once the green combs are drawn all the bees have to do is clean them up & the queen should be laying in them within a day or two which makes the timing more accurate. Definitely less work for them. With regards to removing the contents I initially though that if I uncapped them while frozen they would just pop out like ice cubes but they are actually frozen into the cells. Hosing them out isn't my idea but its the best method I've found so far. I'm sure the extractor would work but its just a big mess to clean up.
@mt.corambaapiculture Fair point about clean up of a tangential extractor after spinning out the decapitated drones (if indeed that does work), I've used a pressure washer in similar situations to great effect, also the smaller size extractor required for this job can be readily inverted which would assist channelling this valuable resource into the compost heap, will be interesting to see if red wrigglers like 'em.
@@jameslissaman8331 Yeah, I think it's a good idea. I would like someone else to try it 😀
When you remove the drone comb, what do you replace it with? More drone comb or regular foundation? How often are you putting the drone comb in?
Very good question
I replace it with another one. When the bees are making drones, e.g. spring-summer, they are always in there. It takes 24 days for a drone to develop from an egg to maturity/hatching. Drone cells are capped around the day 10 mark, which traps the mites, so frames can be swapped over between day 10 & day 24; however, I would wait until closer to day 24 so that most of the cells are capped.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/www.nationalbeeunit.com/assets/PDFs/3_Resources_for_beekeepers/Fact_Sheets/Fact_26_Using_Drone_Brood_Removal_as_a_Varroa_Control.pdf
great demo yet again glen , one question tho . are you going to rotate the frames back thru a super to draw them out again or wont there be time for that ,but i guess if they start storing nectar that screws the process . just thinking out loud on applying the method here really ,
No mate straight back into the brood box.
Could you let me know where you got your black plastic from (Bunnings?) and what type/thickness of plastic? I have HiveIQ's and noticed the bees really like propolising the lid.
Yeah Bunnings etc. The thicker the better not sure how its measured. It certainly makes getting the lids off & back on much easier. I also put it down over the brood box in winter to keep the brood warmer just leave a gap for the bees to get up into the honey supers.