.> If you split ... you are automatically treating for mites by manipulation.

>.I am sorry, but this is load of hooey, for two reasons. One, if you follow this logic, any normal beekeeping activity (splitting, mite sampling, opening the hive) >is a so-called treatment. Second, it doesn't do much. 

>For example, I split a very strong hive last spring, by taking all of the brood and adhering bees, to make two new colonies (to which I gave mated queens right >away). Supposedly, the hive that lost all its brood and half of its bees should have become mite free pretty quickly and stayed that way a long time. 

>Of course, when the summer invasion began, the whole yard (12+) hives had mites at about the same levels. The two splits that got all the brood were somewhat >higher (no surprise there). Of course, I treated for mites when they crossed the threshold. BTW, they all look great at this point (Feb 28).



Sorry Pete,  but that seems to me to be on its face one of the weakest arguments I have seen.
Your supporting argument has no math in it,  no substation of your argument,  and flys in the face of logic.

Splitting IS going to affect mite counts,  granted there are many ways to do splits that will effect things differently,  (capped brood only etc)  but with absolutely ZERO debate  one side will be queenless for at least some period and will effect count, at least slightly even with a mated queen that only takes 3 days to lay.(unlikely)  many,  like Mels system or I think Randy's  means you're going to have a substantial brood break.

And yes mite sampling also is going to have some effect,  but it has to be the accepted standard as we have no other options.  So we treat it like a math function,  as equal on both sides the equation for sampling and basic manipulations.

In your example there was no reason to suspect even the brood free side would go "mite free"  but one would expect that it would have a lot fewer mites.  I would suspect (no math) that had you not split,  the numbers you finally did find would have been even higher yet or needed treated sooner.

Charles

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