Hi Dan, just try it & see what works for you. It’s during a time when swarms are a plenty, is the best time to try flat foundation.
A few months ago I did some swarm prevention because some were around. In those cases I only gave the colonies selected frames of drawn comb, seeing as we were in autumn.
I found that bees mostly draw foundation better in honey supers than in brood supers. So I had some nice fully drawn frames to present them with after some recent honey harvests.
Hi Jeff, sounds good. I’ve got a plethora of empty worker comb here waiting for September. Hey also Jeff…knowing you are intrigued by nature, don’t forget David Attenborough’s Tasmania on ABC tonight. We reckon it’s about time.
Oh yes for sure Dan, I’ll be thinking of you. That was interesting last week about the ants.
Cutting out drone comb.
Those if you that do it. Do you find that the bees rebuild it as worker or as drone?
I cut some empty drone cells from a brood comb and the bees have redrawn it as drone again. They must want them.
As for cutting out drones because they eat honey … wow! I was quite shocked! I’ve never heard of that. Drones have free passage from hive to hive. I have 13 colonies and I always find more drones in the ones that have more food. I keep different bees too and I can see they do mix about.
I thought Flow frames were about letting bees do their own thing not minutely adjusting the population.
I agree with your sentiments and observations completely.
The amount and sharing of knowledge on this forum is amazing.
It’s great learning over time, but really hard for new beekeepers, especially if they get advice unrelated to their place on the planet.
And really, what would happen if everybody on this world cut out all the drones?
If the bees think that virgin queens are likely to be about, they’ll make as many drones as they can afford to make so that it gives that colony a greater chance of passing on it’s genes.
Yes I would find that a colony will replace cut-out drone comb with more drone comb if there is a likelihood of virgin queens about.
I cut drone comb out under certain circumstances while managing my hives. Or drone brood to be precise. I cut drone brood out of frames before placing them above QX’s. I cut drone brood out of frames before giving them to weaker colonies. A weak colony can do without raising drones. I let it raise drones when it’s strong enough to & wants to.
I try to avoid my colonies from building large areas of drone comb in the first place. Hence I don’t use foundationless frames except in my observation hive. In that case the colony is too small to want to build drone comb anyway.
I had never thought of the relationship between drone comb and SHB, that is my lesson to file in my memory bank. If only I could remember which branch it is 
I understand some of your reasoning @JeffH. I sure think everything that you say through a couple of times and keep it in mind for the future.
Experience and observation is everything, you have a lot to give there.
Sometimes I think of your advice while working my hives, yet, I don’t keep hives for the honey, even though I seem to get a lot. (More than my neighbours 
r)
Never use foundation, never cut drone brood, but have taken on everything you said about preemptive swarm control.
That’s gold. Never had a swarm yet and hope the weather is right when our spring comes, very soon.
By the way, I never had excessive drone brood in my hives. The few patches they built in the foundationless frames weren’t big, and in a few weeks they changed them to worker size.
Shows the bees do as they want, and reshape according to needs.
I took very exact notes on all this happening on certain brood frames, so that tells me, we really don’t need to interfere.
Never noticed that drone brood attracted more SHB, but sure, if you transferred a lot of drone on a frame into a new split, I can imagine it could pose a problem.
Thing is, as we do splits in spring, it’s SHB high season.
I took note of some observations last spring concerning drone brood and SHB infestation (away from splits), and the drone producing hives came away laughing (less SHB). But my sample is as yet too small to make a statement.
Anyway, I try to understand the colony’s reasoning, so this is way in the future.
My mentor (3000+ hives) expected me to get a lot of drone brood going foundationless and keeps being surprised by my results.
Obviously it’s not the way to go for a commercial beekeeper.
The difference is like between a commercial producer and a backyard organically inclined vegetable garden for the family. There are different rules.
All of these rules in their respective situations need respecting.
Some have hives to earn a living.
Some have hives to observe nature (science).
Some have hives to have good honey for the family.
Some have hives to save the bees.
Some have no hives because they are vegan.