The snow melted (one month late) and I walked through the yard today. 

There was buzzing, but only from flies.  It is almost as if the hives had been poisoned.

Last fall, there were 75 strong hives in September.  As fall progressed, I saw them start to crater and by the time winter came I could see I'd be lucky to have a few left.

I had been using oxalic once a year in fall, and it had worked fine up until then.  

By the time I realised there was a problem (I was out inspecting other beekeepers' hives) and just before treatment time, they were starting to crash.  PMS...

I had one problem hive in the yard all summer long.  I should have killed it, I suppose, but being retired and curious, I nursed it, watched, and waited.  I suspect the wave that went through the yard began there.

FWIW, last year (stupid me0 I had spent some time on BS discussing "No Treatment", and drank their Kool Aid, just for fun. 

Now I have 8 lives (and 0 hives) left...

NT works until it doesn't.  It is a religion, not a way to manage bees.  

In my entire carreer as a commercial beekeeper, I never lost one hive to varroa -- AFAIK.  I practised IPM and it was not that hard.  I had no dogma.  I just sampled did what seemed right.

The moral of the story?

             ***********************************************
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

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm