a couple of snips > from Mr Oliver followed by my comments and questions <...

>The essence  of their messages matches the above summary.  This is also the
overwhelming conclusion of most knowledgeable professional beekeepers.

In her actual words: "The mites have gained the upper hand."

< so the post of the quote by Spivak in the original message was not really a quote?  

>At two venues I heard well-spoken commercial beekeeper John Miller float
the notion of "national treatment weeks" in order to coordinate mite
management across the country.

< Is this the fellow who exhibited such a pleasant persona in 'More than Honey'?

 >My take on the situation is that there is a storm brewing.  The life
preserver of the commercial beekeeping industry, amitraz, appears to be
finally starting to fail.  And the monstrous growth of the number of
recreational beekeepers, the majority of whom erroneously think that they
are helping to "save the bee" by not treating colonies started from
commercial stocks, is creating a reservoir of varroa that threaten *all*
colonies.

< so when the techno fixs begins to fail the problem and blame is shifted to the folks with few colonies and the other small number of us who (for one reason or the other*) have chosen not to treat?  

Logically this thinking should also include the russian bee program, the Purdue ankle biters and to some extent Marla own Minnesota Hygienic program.

<I guess I could contact Marla directly and ask what was the context of her message and to what audience.  As far as I can tell BIP is a program designed for side liners and commercial folks.  There is a significant cost involved in the program and it seems primarily designed towards firms with limited expertise or experience.... that is the essential ingredients for answering the kinds of question BIP appear to want to address concerning pest and diseases.   Setting here in central texas it is difficult for me to understand how I might infect other hives.  It is also difficult for me to understand how some hobbyist with 1 to 6 hives is causing so much problem.

*AT THIS POINT IN TIME**I am a treatment free beekeeper who  in good years and bad make a small honey crop.  Although I do a bit of direct educational work with lots of small scale beekeepers going the treatment free route is not something I encourage.  I don't advocate for that approach since I know they most commonly come to beekeeping with absolutely no experience to recognize even the most basic bee disease and problems.  I do try to hammer on the idea that ALL need to monitor for mites and of course ALWAYS light their smoker.  The basic reason I am (currently) treatment free is I have a neighbor who rears lots of queens via a treatment free program and we have yards where the drone population do overlap.  Most of my stock is from the same treatment free program and as a curtsey to them I chose to use the same strategy.  I have not used any kind of treatment in about a decade (for varroa or tm for that matter)  Based on conversation with one of the state bee inspectors tm use is another techno fix which in a similar manner could be another 'story brewing'  for commercial beekeeper.

**Things change of course I often fall back on the strategies employed by several of my commercial mentors.... so my own current question/thinking is 'why not both'.

ps... I do agree with 'my take' (actually Randy's take... see above).  The best evidence I see of this in the number of times some commercial folks are now using across the board mite treatment on their hives.   Not that long ago they informed me that they treated about once per year and now this number has grown to three.  Evidently what once worked, now does not work so well.    

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