I agree and will try it this year (assuming I hear of any swarms). The last two years I have not heard of any. Last year I "contacted the police dept" and put my name on their list but still nothing came of it. Perhaps if we small timers had someone "in the know" help coordinate our separate activities we could distribute the load of testing and trying and such out to such an extent that it would be within our individual budgets. I, for one, would be willing to help do whatever I could to test new management procedures, control techniques and drugs or chemicals, strains of honeybees if it would get us out of this all to frequently depressing battle to protect our (shall I be honest) little friends. My great uncle was a beekeeper during WWII and, before he died last year, just shook his head when I told him what the beekeeping industry was trying to contend with. He was remembering, I think, the days when he pulled off glorious comb honey sections just by putting on the sections in the spring and when treatment for winter meant perhaps wrapping with tar paper. (I am perhaps glamorizing [how do you like that word? I thunk it up myself] his conditions but, the point is, he could not believe what I was telling him. It had been so easy in his day. He could not relate to our circumstances at all.) I have rambled and I am sorry. I would like to offer whatever services a three year victim of ignorance in beekeeping can offer. Perhaps others could as well.... Yours, Mark Egloff [log in to unmask] ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Mite resistant swarm queens Author: Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]> at CSC_uuxch Date: 2/20/96 8:12 PM When you catch a feral swarm this year, do not requeen it, and do not treat it for mites (beyond surveying to see if mites are present). The theory I'm trying to test is that if a feral colony is strong enough to swarm in this day and age, it must have at least some resistance to mites. W. G. Miller Gaithersburg, MD