>Of course I forgot to include beekeepers who are running the Russian bee 
in my latest list.  As I understand it, many are able to run these bees 
without much, if any, treatment. 

And, of course, I forgot about those who are using non-contaminating 
chemicals like formic and oxalic.  Since we are talking about the days 
when things were simpler and combs from the brood boxes could be 
interchanged with the super combs without worry, I suppose they qualify in 
that regard, if not in the rest of the criteria.

As for going back to the carefree days when we didn't have the expense and 
inconvenience of having to schedule around treatments or monitor for 
tracheal and varroa mites -- in addition to having to worry about comb 
contamination -- in North America, I don't think many commercial 
beekeepers are anywhere near there yet.

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