Hi all,

I wanted to add my two cents to the comments on miticides. 

If I could keep my bees healthy without them, I would. We don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Varroa control continues to be the biggest threat on my radar screen. 

Comments that call for the elimination of all chemical controls are premature. I certainly want options available to keep my bees healthy. Every beekeeper has the option of choosing controls that work in their own beeyards. It is not necessary to reduce my option of controls to satisfy ideological views of someone else that may or may not be true. 

Believe me, we are trying to reduce mite populations in every way possible. We try every thing we can check for mite drops. Thymol, formic, breeding our own queen stock with VSH queens, etc., and still we get populations that impact the health of our bees. 

As for comb contamination, I would like to comment that we have spent tons of money on new combs over the last few years(many tens of thousands) and I like what I see. But I still runs into hives that have old dark nasty knarly funky combs that we haven't got into lately and the bees look great. 

Kirk Jones

Sleeping Bear Farms   beekeepers making honey...
Benzie Playboys           cajun and zydeco band........

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