I said:
> The reason they switched to bringing in the Russian strain and exploring
SMR.

Keith said:
But they used dopes in addition where Mr. Yoon has not for many years now.

The USDA bee lab in Baton Rouge has not used chemicals to treat the Russian
bees as told to us by Tom R.. Information on both projects is at their web
site.

Yoon is right on schedule for a varroa infestation with the "leave alone "
method. You could be the next to post problems. Will you admit like Yoon & I
have to varroa problems in a national forum? Dee did?

regardless of my thoughts on small cell I will always have a great deal of
respect for Dee & Ed Lusby and their honesty and courage!

If you are reading this post Dee. My new neighbor is John Mills . The same
John Mills which worked at the bee lab and was a friend of yours. He said to
say "Hi".

Keith said;
 Where have you been while other beekeepers switched from using dopes to
running clean systems?

I have had private round tables with commercial beekeepers in Califronia,
Texas & Florida in the last couple years in their states and so far I have
not found a single commercial beekeeper using 4.9mm cell size, FGMO or
screened bottom boards. I will keep looking and report when I find one.

All were very knowledgeable about all the above and freely gave their
opinions which would take many emails to relay and I am afraid would upset
many on the list which follow the above methods.

I will say about half said they would consider using screened bottom boards
on their skids aand possibly try 4.9 cell size as an experiment..

Words of wisdom when dealing with  varroa from Bob

"Never underestimate your opponent!"( meaning varroa)

"you can not know the varroa load of a hive without testing!"

Bob

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