Trap Comb Method
Arbeiten am Bienenstand
The queen is confined in a comb cage whose side faces are made of queen excluder.
The queen is confined in a comb cage whose side faces are made of queen excluder. Workers pass through, the queen does not. She then lays only in this one comb, and all mites wanting to reproduce go into it.
Work proceeds in nine-day stretches with three trap combs one after another. Each is removed as a trap comb after capping and melted down. Counting from day one, the queen is released again after 27 days, the last trap comb is removed around day 36, and queenrightness is then checked.
Related to this is caging the queen: she is prevented from laying eggs at all, and after about 25 days at the latest the colony is broodless and can be treated with oxalic acid. Only cages that are fitted into a comb with queen excluder are suitable for this; the usual introduction, transfer, and shipping cages are not suitable. Both methods require that you can reliably find the queen, and they need a fixed schedule.