Green Drone Comb Frame

People are always curious about these bright green frames! Designed to be used as part of an integration pest management (IPM) system of varroa mite control, these frames have a large 7.1mm drone cell pattern. The idea is to get your bees to build drone comb on this frame and let the queen fill it with drone brood. Varroa mites strongly prefer drone comb, so you should get a heavy congregation of mites in this frame. When the frame is filled and capped, the beekeeper removes it and freezes it for a day or two to kill the mites inside (and of course the drone brood as well). Then the frame is placed back in the hive for the bees to clean out and start the process over again.
Although definitely not a standalone mite control method, this can be an effective way to reduce mite populations. However, timing is critical because you need to get the frame out of the hive and freeze it before the brood (and mites) emerge. The frame is bright green for easy identification in the hive.

Like all of our frames and foundation, these are double wax coated for superior bee acceptance!

The attached video provides some excellent info about when and how to use these frames to control varroa.