Tom is correct, an insert which has dross over its entire surface must mean
that bees are covering the majority of the frames, consequently strong.
 
But I still think that practical beekeeping, you know the stuff where you
actually get your head into the box tells me more than many of these
gadgets. That sounds as if I am not in favour of varroa screens, not true,
they help
us hobbyist UK beekeepers manage the levels of varroa infestations and will
probably be needed for quite a few years as a varroa diagnostic tool (I
still remain with that opinion, they are a tool for judging levels of mite
infestation and should not be left permanently in situ). But during my
slumbers I often
dream of these American commercial beekeepers, the one's that I am told
manage
many thousands of hives, do they run around pushing sheets of paper into a
space
under the brood box? Hopefully they will tell me but I think I already know
the answer. But if screens are used in the States (are they?), or even for
our UK commercial beekeepers, us hobbyists with the time available to use
screens
can be of assistance to them, by judging the level of infestation in an
AREA.
 
Also in those dreams I can foresee a day when varroa is controlled just like
the Acarine or Tracheal Mite is and maybe then these screens will join the
graveyards along with the Apidictor and many of the other things that have
recently been mentioned on this list.
 
But until that day, those that have the time should use the screens to give
an indication of levels of mite infestation, only a couple of days ago I put
screens under some, not all, of my hives, tore open a pack of Bayvarol
strips and inserted them and maybe tomorrow I will have a rough idea of mite
infestation levels, light (can forget until more brood is being produced),
medium (will have check again shortly) or high (when the strips get
left in the hive for the full six weeks), and all other colonies in the
apiary are also treated.
 
There I have earn't my keep for the pleasure of reading everyone else's
contributions to Bee-L and will now return to my 'reader only mode' as
neither Tom, Chris or Wedmore himself will put together the Associations
magazine,
or as the wife might say, "When are you going to do something with this
flaking
paint?"
 
 
Ken Hoare
from a Shropshire, UK with snow on top of the hills (but only on the tops).