> I am a no treatment beekeeper quite by accident in that my view of bees is
> very utilitarian (thank you Peter B. for adding this detail to Bee-Line
> several years back).  My good beekeeping neighbor to the south of me
> informed me that he was trying to develop a non treatment bee and we have
> geographical and air space to overlap. I had obtained 3 initial initial
> packages and a good number of queens from him prior to this time..so much
> of my own stock was pretty close to his. I was/am not smart enough to know
> if this idea would work at that time but I had the clear idea that drone
> population was a part of the workings and did not wish to mess up his
> efforts if the idea had any possibility to succeed. < actually I think this
> is still true and is why setting a few non treatment queens in a sea of
> treated (you do not really wish to know with what) bees is simply foolish
> thinking.
>

I see the exact reverse- setting up NT apiaries in my area that flood the
area with mites when their hives crash with stunning regularity every year.
Fortunately economics are catching up with them and only one remains and
they may call it quits since it is a bit expensive to replace all your
hives every year since they all die.

But what you are saying is the NT bees will not survive unless surrounded
with NT bees. So they cannot really manage Varroa?

BTW, my definition of NT is that the colony is still alive after three
years of no mite control measures. Mite control measures include miticides
organic or not and manipulation which includes splits and drone larva/pupa
removal.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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