Hi Allen & All,

> This new(?) information is especially interesting for those of us who think
> we can breed bees by looking at natural drop boards and rejecting hives with
> big drops.  It is not that simple.  We could be rejecting the best varroa
> fighters, using that criterion, if they are, at that moment, combating an
> infestation originating outside the hive.  Observations over a longer period
> are necessary to get an understanding.  (Again, credit to Dee for that).
>

I agree, and for my simple mind it was very easy to understand. It was Dee that
was the first to explain this to me. A high mite drop simply means that the bees
are doing their jobs of ejecting the mites. In some instances a beekeeper not
wanting to use chemicals in the hive can get the wrong signal from a high mite
drop, get worried, jump the gun on his/her bees and feel that a chemical
treatment is necessary. Doing this with chemical free bees could only retard the
bees natural ability to eject mites because of the chemicals affect even on the
bees memory. I have decided that counting mites wholesale is a waste of time, so
for curiosities sake I only count mites on one hive each year. I am going to
start looking at the bottom boards for damaged mites to determine if VKF (Varroa
killer factor) present or not in a colony.

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA, http://www.cer.org/,
c(((([ , Apiarian, http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney/,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Norlandbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ApiarianBreedersGuild/

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