Bob writes: The moving of hives when bees are flying to lose the old workers has little to do with varroa control but might add some control in the broodless period but would not help beekeepers in the area with their varroa control as those bees might would find their way into those hives. Reply: Think you are wrong here Bob, and we are talking now strickly varroa control and what I am looking at is the shortening of the life of your younger bees in hive you are left with that then become the newer nurse bees, and you have to use to make your turn of brood with, firing back up, especially if done in a brood turning off period to fire back up later for fall rearing of bees. If done wrong this could end up with a blow out with the summer lulls or loss of much strength and troubles restarting back up. The varroa here being not in mass on the older field bees, but in mass maybe 90% on the nurse bees, and then dividing the nurse bees to force many to go into foraging ahead of schedule with mites then transferring to newer nurse bees worsening them by being younger, and if very young you should know that with X number of days of emergence and growing up to duties if too many varroa transfer to bees they can shorten the life fo the bees dramatically. And if more are also available to go into any brood restarting up in smaller patches then you got more then one going into a cell which means 4 or more feeding on the brood prior to emerging and that can be disasterous. For trachael mite help maybe once in lungs you get rid of doing this, but for varroa opposite is reality I think for generating problems. Bob continues: The method is used to reduce the feed costs on hives after a major honey flow and if done at certain times leave only young bees for winter. Reply: Yes, but if you then force the yound bees to early on in life carry a larger mite load, I would think within X number of days the sucking of blood meal would have detrimental effects on the longevity of the bees lives and thus increase risks for hive collapse when you certainly don't need it. With short lived summer bees this could shorten lives to days and throw more mites into any first turn start up for instant collaspe somehow my mind is registering. Bob continues: Plenty of methods are used in commercial beekeeping which are not written in the current bee books so those with knowledge only obtained from those books are not aware of those methods. Reply: Yes, Bob I know and this is why I am registering thoughts differently then most and I think you know that, for I am looking at what you are doing and knowing what is in the books, and something is starting to beep beep in mind saying, wait you are hurting and not helping doing this. For if chemicals are playing out then it's the bees haveing to contain and they will not be able to do so with this routine in field anymore.........unless you got another bullet which I think you do not. Dee- __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---