hi again - this is a follow-up to my original post . . . it seems from replies (thanks, all) that i can reuse the supers and get just any old nuc to replace the bees that left. using strips seems the popular way to treat varroa. the hive was perfectly clean, and there was no evidence of dead bees in the area around the hive. by perfectly clean, i mean just that - no dead bees, at all. there was a fine dust (i don't know what that migth have been) but other than that, nothing at all. the problem was diagnosed as varroa *without* the expert seeing the hive, so there may be a problem with the diagnosis . . . are there any other possibilities? richard [log in to unmask] all disclaimers apply