Jim said: "if Peter were to use and check sticky boards on all his
hives weekly, it would consume a full 8-hour workday every week!!"

Yes,  agreed, which is why sticky boards are such a clumsy method and a simpler method is needed.  Permanent plastic wipe-clean trays under permanent mesh floors take say 15 to 30 seconds to pull out , glance at for abnormal amount of mites, wipe and return - and a monthly check is sufficient to show up the colonies getting infected from outside. So monitoring 120 hives would add 15 MINUTES WORK A WEEK, NOT 8 HOURS!   Estimating the exact number of mites dropped in 4 weeks is needed say once or twice a year when a decision to treat or not is needed.  Even then, with experience, a fair guess can be made just by eye, or you count the mites seen within a 2 inch square opening in a card dropped on the tray and factor up.  

Ever since varooa arrived, the scientific advice has been to monitor mite drop. So I say again, by now, mesh floors and wipable trays should be standard equipment.  Staying locked on to the old ways, and proposing silly ways of monitoring,  just in order to knock the method down,  is really no help. 

Dick Allen said: " There is never a shortage of good ideas.  Some seem
compelling and urgent, but a smart manager must decide what will pay
with some certainty, and what will not; and what omission is likely to
have serious adverse consequences, and what can safely be risked."

Isn't Varooa one of the most serious problems we have?  Is it really safe to risk not finding the colonies with abnormal growth rate of mites , that need treatment earlier than other hives in order to avoid robbing or drifting from weakened colonies?   Are we taking any steps against the day when Apistan is no longer effective against invasion by resitant mites?  Considering how little change there has been to beekeeping practice in the ten to 15 years since Variooa arrived, by when will we be ready?  


Robin Dartington 

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