> ...the numbers of beekeepers doing it
>exactly that way are growing daily, and expanding like a
>new industry rising up from the roots, with a coming back
>to enjoyable beekeeping again without all the gimicky of
>treatments, and artificialness that detracts from old
>doings.

This is pretty well what we had all hoped for, but it has been slow in 
coming, partly due to the availability of chemical solutions.

What many forget is that the use of chemicals, when originally permitted, 
was supposed to be a stop-gap or emergency measure.  However, many have 
become dependant on them.  

This partly due to the fact that a profitable small industry has grown up 
around developing and distributing these short-term solutions, and 
considerable money and time is spent promoting them.

The idea was that the chemicals could keep bees and beekeepers alive until 
beees were adapted to dealing with the mites.  Unfortunately, the use of 
these chemicals has slowed the adaptation by keepinmg susceptible strains 
of bees alive and in the gene pool.

It's one of those catch 22 things.  Bite the bullet and take the drastic 
hit immediately, or pay -- possibly much more -- over an extended 
timeframe.  Of course the choice was to take as little a loss up front as 
possible, and hope for a silver bullet.  Unfortunately, that silver bullet 
has not come.  

For a solution to be the silver bullet, it would have to work for everyone 
everywhere and cost nothing after implementation.  

    Good genetics was the big hope, but it turns out that the mite 
tolerant strains do not measure -- yet -- up for many jobs, since they 
lack some of the qualities necessary for profitability in some important 
commercial applications.

   Small cell works for some, but hasn't caught on in a big way with 
commercial operators, although many have tinkered with it.  Lack of 
scientific confirmation has held this one back, as has the religious 
fervour of some proponents, and the seeming total absence -- even after 
many years now -- of any large commercially viable examples.

    Organic acids (there is that word "organic" again, this time used in 
its correct meaning) don't count, since they are just a more -- possibly --
 benign part of the same chemical treadmill.

   Some beekeepers think that some minor addition to feed, like copper 
gluconate, could be ideal, since there is virtually no cost, and the mite 
problem goes away, however, unfortunately, there is no evidence that CG 
works, or that we can find such a benign and inexpensive talisman.  
Nonetheless, there are many beekeepers who add their own "magic potion" to 
hives in the belief -- and it is only that -- that they are doing some 
good.

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