>I should take this back, and rephrase as a question!  Do others find that
>there are more mite problems in larger apiaries?

Yes, very much so.  I think that my loss last fall/winter was exacaerbated by having all my hives in one yard and that if they had been separated into three or four yards, my losses would have been less. 

I think that what we are considering here is the same question we deal with in considering diseases and pests in any population.

As the population increases, the probability of having a member which is highly susceptible to any one problem increases.  If that individual succumbs to a disease or pest, in the process, the pathogen is able to multiply and overcome the defenses of less susceptible members. 

Additionally, the probability of a more lethal, but self-limiting mutation increases with population.

Where multiple diseases are present in a population and where each disease or pest is not particularly deadly, but any combination of two or more is lethal, the risk increases geometrically with population size.

This is obviously an oversimplification, and this principledoes not operate in isolation from counter forces, but it sheds some light on the question IMO.

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