Tim:
Yes, I know they never saw the receeds back and this is
because the experiment was with hives in the same yard and
draft was involved with mites being equilized from hive to
hive and the SC hives were helping the LC hives stay alive
by taking mites away from them FWIW via drift.

But the paper did show higher numbers of mjites being
dropped for all four years and so the hives were doing a
heck of a lot of work helping those LC ones next door. 

Like I said the paper was forwarded to me. I like the
comments coming back now and yours is good, for it shows
how  small experiments need to be looked at for actual
doings by those doing it to get good results.

Here IMPOV I would not have done:

the apistan nor sugar powder stuff as unacceptable for bees
don't do that in Natural state.

Also would have put hives in seperate yards and apart
enough for NO Drift.

Also would have compared short term to long term cycles and
prior to and following the broodnest turn overs.

Also whould have wanted to know stats going in and level
mites for hives and general area.

But I didn't do the work and many now looking are just
learning and this all needs to be considered as to how's.

But I stand what I said previous post based on my personal
experience and what I show to those really wanting to see
hands on. You need HIGH mite drops and the higher the
better. You also need to not have different hives in same
yard and I am not meaning then place in yards of each other
nearby. I am talking radius sufficient to avoid complete
drift to see how the bees actually handle the problem. Then
NO TREATMENTS to queer the sampling results or internal
broodnest workings which treatments do even for just
sampling........

This to me is just basics for starting..while some would
then use artificial feeds then, I would not for it changes
parameters also IMPOV for longevity in looking at bees in
their lives while watching.

But high mite drops seeing is KEY! low mite drops in seeing
is DEATH!!!!! long term talking here for beginnings. Then
you watch the phase downs of mites as bees take charge on
SC.......

On last thing too! me here and not what written here. Drone
culling and comb positioning are key also, for you either
match nature or you don't in resetting the bees back up to
roll.

Dee  





But, in the paper you pointed to, they never saw the
"receeds back" 
part.  The small cell always showed higher numbers of mites
being 
dropped, for all four years. Since mites don't live that
long, all
 these 
mites being dropped later in the test period had to be new
mites,
 that 
grew up in the small cells, didn't they?

And, in each given treatment interval, the small cell
showed more
 mites 
dropping for the entire interval.  If the counts were
higher because
 it 
was easier to knock mites off of bees on small cell, then I
would
 have 
expected that there would have been a large "pulse" of mite
drop at
 the 
beginning of each test interval, which would rapidly tail
off to
 below 
the levels seen for the large cell bees by the end of the
test 
interval.  This never happened.

I'm sorry, I don't see where this study is any sort of
ringing 
endorsement of small cell.  It is at best inconclusive,
unless the 
question can be answered of where all those extra mites in
the small 
cell hives were coming from for all four years of the
testing. 

-- 



       
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