The big problem I have had when talking to many of the drop all treatments 
group is
those people really have no way of understanding our methods. Varroa
infestation is simple math. Researchers understand. When a test hive is
started with a certain varroa load then the researcher knows from experience
what the load will be in 3 months, 4 months ,five months etc.EXCEPT when the
commercial beek adds huge flows or constant feeding of syrup and pollen
patties. Then the formula changes. My longtime friend David Vanderdussen ( 
Mite away 2 and lifelong commercial beekeeper) has spoke often on the varroa 
math.

 Randy has attempted over and over in his articles to explain the varroa
math. I have spent countless hours trying to teach the varroa math to
commercial beeks. Eventually a light will go on and the varroa math is
learned!

The Russian bee when added to the "live and Live die" method has produced
some results.The Russian bee does tolerate varroa and has less virus issues.
I have tested hundreds of Russian/Russian bees and am convinced.

 Kirk added
the Russian bee to *his* breeding program and his program improved. A fact
he does not deny! In fact Carl Webb and I ( personal conversation) have
discussed before the way many beekeepers have claimed finding varroa
tolerate bees after bring in the Russian bee and acting like it was *their*
breeding which produced the varroa tolerance rather than simply importing
the Russian stock.

The Russian bee will not work for me. Does not mean the bee will not work in 
your operation. What works for me is a prolific Italian bee and IPM methods.



> BTW, Bob, may I commend you on an excellent article on moving bees and
> pallet considerations!

Thanks! The article was written over a year ago. I would bring up on the 
computer every once
in awhile and add or delete parts. I decided to wait for publication until I
had pictures showing the six way pallets. many commercial beekeepers have
never seen a pallet of six hives. Most are vary familiar with 4 ways. I felt 
as did others which read before publication that without the pictures with 
arrows I would lose many readers.


I almost went into the pros & cons of using pallets for bottom boards as
opposed to using pallets with hives with their own bottom boards. The big
boys ( Adee Farms & Bell Honey )always preferred hives with their own bottom
boards for decades and for some very good reasons. The article would have
been huge had I covered the subject.
>
After doing the article I now wonder if six way pallets might not be a
better choice. I have always used only 4 way pallets.

I am working on a couple other commercial beekeeping articles. The next 
article will be in July ABJ and is about the operation of my friend ( and 
BEE-L member) Kirk Jones. Kirk runs a  large and successful commercial 
migratory operation and shares his insight on why he has been successful.

I have been working on a commercial bee truck wrecks article. Includes the 
behind the scenes comments behind the most famous of all bee truck wrecks 
"Terror in the Night" which was written about back in the 80's in Readers 
Digest. I did two interviews . One with the owner of the truck and the other 
with a member of the Florida apiary service which was on scene. both told 
the same story. When I first read the readers Digest story I thought maybe 
the author was exaggerating the scene. Not so. Very scary story.

bob 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned 
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html