That does seem a little extreme. Not much room to raise workers and (to me)
not a suprise that varroa wiped him out. I agree with limiting your
experimentation. I have one hive that will get different treatment to see if
it lives - it is from a survivor hive that had remained in this area
untreated for over two years. Nasty tempered bees, but very high population
when I retrieved it.  I already use the shortening patties for tracheal
mites and OMF on most of my hives. I'll probably be trying FGMO and
monitoring to see if it ends up with heavy varroa. The rest get apistan for
now, as I don't want to end up like the many in this area that lost 80-100%
of their hives over the last year (some of which used apistan, but did not
feed, which was required due to very early freezing that eliminated the
goldenrod and aster flow last year).

-Karen

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob & Liz
...
Over half the box was drone comb.
...
Ps. Experiment with a few hives but not all your hives.