Thanks Allen.
May I make a few suggestions to make your page a bit more user friendly.
1.  Label the axes of your charts.
2. Use the same time scales in your text and in the charts.  I have to take
time to try to locate your treatment dates (e.g., Dec 23) on the x axis.
3.  I'm able to figure out the colored triangles on the x axes of the
charts as being treatments, but it would be helpful to label.
4.  Do you have any reason to think that Apivar is an effective treatment
in a winter cluster?  The label doesn't mention temperature.  I'm not sure
whether there is enough movement of bees in the cluster to properly
distribute the active ingredient.
5.  Number the charts so that we can refer to them by number.

Re the four individual charts:

Hive 1 (950 cumulative)--the treatments appeared to be effective, although
even after three consecutive treatments of broodless colonies, there were
still mites.

Hive 2 (3000 cumulative)--the treatments were considerably less effective.

Hive 3 (4400 cumulative)--treatments effective overall, but it took 5
vaporizations, three while the colony was broodless!

Hive 4 (3300)--treatments less effective.  One certainly couldn't count
upon a single vaporization, especially if brood were present, at giving
effective mite control.

Hive 5 (1100)--what the heck was that single high spike from?  Treatments
were effective.

Hive 6 (1700)--again, treatments not particularly effective.

Bottom line, it still took 5 time-consuming treatments to scour out most of
the mites, which surprises me, since three of the treatments were given
during the broodless period.

Your average mite drop per hive post Dec 23 was 106 mites.  Not counting
the remaining living mites, that means that at least around a 0.5%
infestation remained post Dec 23.  If half the remaining mites at Dec 23
are still alive, that would suggest a 1% remaining infestation (would sure
help if you could do some alcohol washes for confirmation).

By comparison, in my own colonies, mite levels were lower than yours in the
fall.  I gave them a single oxalic dribble in November.  In my tests for
potential breeder queens in my own operation this spring, following four
complete brood cycles, and with plenty of broodrearing,  the average mite
infestation rate was around 2% in the adult bees (range 0 - 8%).

Comparison is difficult since you are using mite drop of dead mites,
whereas I am using alcohol wash.  You are blind as to the number of living
mites, other than by extrapolation by the number dropping each day.  I'm
more interested in the number of live mites in my colony, rather than the
number of dead.

How much time and expense did the 5 vaporizations involve?

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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