> Then, I bought a wholesale quantity of 8-frame and 10-frame entrance
> reducers, and modified the "education" accordingly.
>
> I will repeat yet again that we may not be Our Brother's Keeper, but we
> must
> occasionally be "Our Brother's Beekeeper".
> Here's the pitch for someone who is hoping to change the course of
> evolution
> two deadouts at a time:
>
> 1)  Prevent ROBBING!
> 2)  Use these entrance reducers in fall!  Here's a free one, if you don't
> have one.  Take two, they're small.
>

Completely agree. For most of the last 25 years or soI left the entrance
reducers on all year long with no issues (remember this is Maine where we
have 2 seasons- winter and the 4th of July.) Two years ago I was convinced
to at least open the reducer by putting it on a 45 degree angle. When I saw
the "robbing" I did move the reducer back in place.I am going back to my
usual all year long reducer.

I am not sure even an entrance reducer cuts it with an invasion, so I will
add a robbing screen in late Autumn. Maybe run a little experiment and
leave them off one hive.

What will be interesting is if I still get a sharp increase in mites in
October even with all the precautions. If so, and I will let you know, then
the hypothesis may need some work since it probably will be my bees robbing
other hives. If no increase, then at least it has some substance, but still
a hypothesis.

I am glad that Jim also acknowledges the effectiveness of OAV compared to
the other mite control methods. A Maine commercial beekeeper who winters in
FL did run a series of trials with all the different mite controls and OA
Vapor was by far the best all around with the highest mite kills and least
harm to the bees.

But, right now I think it is a mostly hobby beekeeper use because it is
labor intensive and commercial operators uses the blower method and that
really spreads the vapors all over the place compared to a hand held
vaporizer. That same commercial Maine beekeeper showed it being applied in
the early am in FL and it looked like a fog bound Maine scene, with OA
vapor hanging in the air. They all had respirators, but I would not want to
be an applicator. There will be accidents and they will not be good.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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