> Pete, you are a stalwart on this list and I sincerely admire your contributions and dedication, but enough of the feel good stuff. From my experience the colony in question collapsed from the varroa/virus complex in a very typical and predictable way. 

Hmm. *I never said the colony collapsed.* In fact, I just drove the 30 miles roundtrip to look at it. That hive and the rest of the hives in the group look perfectly normal for mid-winter. The two packages we installed in May both died, probably some time in December.

What I have described is this: the hives were checked for mites in spring. Higher than I expect to see then, but not terrible. Checked again in July, the average was right at the threshold= 3-4% with one hive at 10%. We treated with MAQs in early August and again in mid September. 

Around that time BeeInformed sampled the hive. They found very low levels of everything except varroa which they pegged at 5% (and we treated very soon after that with MAQs) and also, DWV was very high. At no point did the colony exhibit any symptoms other than the presence of varroa mites. 

The brood looked normal, the bees looked normal. I was a state bee inspector, I know what hives with DWV & PMS usually look like. At this point I will add that my training is as a commercial beekeepers so even though I only look after a few hives theses days, I use the same basic technique. 

You go in, make a quick assessment and go on. Commercial beekeepers don't spend an hour with each hive, and sideliners usually don't either because they have to fit beekeeping in with the rest of their life, often working on the hives one day a month, or so. Especially if the weather is not cooperating. 

My reason for posting this was to see if anyone else is involved in this BeeInformed sampling and what sort of levels they are seeing. I have several reports but there is no location data attached to them (for anonymity), other than the state (NY). What it looks like to me is that the varroa are under control but the DWV is through the roof. And yet, no DWV symptoms. 

PLB

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html