John,
The reasoning behind my questions:
If one has a hypothetical colony of 1000 bees and no brood in January -
a count of mites would produce 100% infestation rate (1 to 1 bees to mites)
Still in hypothetical situation:
By April, still 1000 adult bees + brood being now present - 50% of the
mites may be situated on the enclosed brood, therefore a count would
indicate only 1 mite to 2 bees.
The raw count indicates an apparent fall in mite numbers.
Add to this situation an increase in adult bee #'s and that would lower
the apparent count of mites present again.
Applying the same logic to the population dynamics that you may observe
in your colonies - Does this suggest an explanation to your mite level
observations?
Excuse my trying to keep things on a simple level - the mail would be
tediously long if written as a full blow population dynamics scenario.
Regards,
Peter
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