> Have you considered the possibility that the bees you sold were 
loaded with
 > mites?  Or maybe the comb was old and black and carried some other 
problem
 > in addition to the mites?

That would be much easier to determine if the buyers had followed 
instructions.

Anyone buying nucs should determine on delivery what potential problems 
there
could be and how to avoid them.  Unfortunately some just hear "resistant 
stock"
and assume that the bees will be OK with no further thought.

I made the same mistake and assumed that since I had no problems for years,
and because I brought in the best resistant stock I knew of, and saw no 
mites,
that I would be OK.

It was not varroa itself that killed that whole yard IMO, but something 
vectored
by varroa levels that were high, but not high enough to kill 100% of the 
hives.  I
saw it go through the yard like a wave.

As for black comb and all that, I ran bees ion comb blacker than tar and 
tough
enough to step on with no imprint and the bees prospered back before varroa.

Common sense should tell us, though, that 100 nucs are from more than one
hive and maybe several yards.  The fact that the writer does not say 
that all his
hives or even a percent of them went the same way as the negligent 
buyers' hives
provides a control that justifies his conclusion with high probability, 
(although
not complete certainty).

Occam's razor says to go with the simplest explanation that fits the 
known facts.

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