I find that mite pressure appears to be greater in apiaries of
ore than a few hives).<
Hi Randy I was wondering why you think this is so?

Tom Seeley found that when colonies were spaced naturally they were able to cope with mites indefinitely but when the same colonies were aggregated into yards/apiaries they soon succumbed.  The reason he described was vertical versus horizontal transmission of the mites.  Explained anthropomorphically, the mites with nowhere else to go have to be careful not to kill their host colony, but those with another one/several/hundreds next door can simply move sideways (horizontally) to a new host.

Chris

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