>>>>    I am not criticizing the survey--it is certainly better than nothing, but
to me, it would be more informative to independently and carefully assess
colony strength for a subset of representative operations from various
parts of the country.

Sounds to me like an established inspection criteria should be established.  QUERY:  Is it possible for a standardized inspection criteria to be pertinent to all areas of the country and in almost all conditions?   Maybe an inspection criteria should be published here on BEE-L and then critiqued by all areas of the beekeeping community?   

It has been an unusual year for me this year.  What has worked for me in past years, quite a number of years, does not seem to be producing the best results.  And, the same management techniques used in one yard are working and in another yard which did well last year isn't doing nearly as well.   Very frustrating when one is ignorant on how to go about reevaluating one's conditions to come up with different management practices.

Another thing I'm wondering about is that a beekeeper close to me is bringing in bees from other areas of the state and placing them within mating range of my bee yard.  I know this is having an effect on my genetics, but not sure what.  As far as I can tell, there was no study done on how the bees were managed before they were brought in or how resistant they were to varroa damage.   

I'd love to learn how to conduct VSH evaluations on my bees and the bees of this other beekeeper.  I've investigated what would be entailed with using liquid nitrogen as a study procedure but it's expensive to get started and not sure if I could interest other beekeepers in my county to participate and share part of the cost.  For those of you who have done this type of study, what would you charge to provide this service to other beekeepers who wanted it?

Mike in LA


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