>
> >Is the above a comment you made here on BEE-Line or an article you wrote
> for the ABJ?


I believe that I posted to the List--will soon be publishing in ABJ and
then to my website.  Bottom line, approx 25% of the hives contained 75% of
the total mites in the sampled group of 200+ hives.  Coupled with the data
from Eva Frey, Wyatt Mangum, etc on mite immigration from outside sources,
my data strongly supports the hypothesis that a relatively small number of
highly-infested colonies can have a serious impact upon the mite loads of
surrounding colonies.

To many of us who have been keeping bees since before the invasion of
varroa, this phenomenon has been pretty obvious.  No matter how well you
control the mites in your operation, it can all be moot if there are a
number of untreated (or poorly managed) colonies in the vicinity.

Many commercial beeks surreptitiously monitor the mite levels in
neighboring operators' hives, and move away if the neighbor is not
controlling his mite levels.  This consequences of not doing so was learned
the hard way.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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