At 12:00 AM 12/17/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Their reasoning was that because the original packaging was not sealed in an
>airtight package  the fluvinate dried up and lost effectiveness. The
>strips were one year old at
>the time of placement in the hive and had been stored in their original
>package, out of sunlight.

I don't think that this is borne out by the experience of the majority. I
think you may have fluvalinate resistant mites. I suggest you try an
alternative treatment. DON'T overlap chemicals, however. Studies have shown
that fluvalinate is present in the combs for weeks after using the strips.
I would remove all the brood and freeze it. Then you can give the combs
back and the bees will clean them out. Use a different chemical in January
or February.

Try having your hives build some drone comb. By giving a frame with most of
the comb cut out, you can get nice drone combs built in the spring. Remove
these when the drone brood is capped and freeze it. If your hives are close
together, you will want to treat them all the same because if there are
resistant mites around, they will piggyback on drifting bees and soon all
your hives will have them.

PB