> I am hearing a great deal of excitement over
> integrating less effective treatments with the more powerful synthetic
> treatments- the philosophy being to keep mite populations low, for as long as

This is along the same lines as was put forward as EAS last year. A
constant preasure on the mite population from several sources. One example
given was the screen bottom board. Combine this with a spring formic
treatment and the need for Apistan is reduced to once a year.

I have a hive that has had the bottom screen in place for almost one year.
It had a fall Apistan treatment, but I am going to skip the spring
treatment until drone brood testing shows a high mite population. If I can
get formic gel in time I may try and dose this hive.

Next to this hive is a control hive. It is getting Apistan treatments
twice a year. This hive has strips in it now due to high mite count in the
drone brood (I am in Florida so I can open the hives to add and remove the
strips).

This sample size is too low for any real conclusions but if things track I
will set more hives up with bottom boards.