But if high mite loads triggered hygienic behavior, wouldn’t it be triggered without a brood break? If old mites can’t reproduce successfully, how do they begin reproducing in the spring after a long winter brood break?

At some point all bees are hygienic,  the question is where is the trigger?  For some dead larve are removed immediately,  others it takes a couple of days I am thinking that its probably triggered faster when the brood nest is tiny vs when its 5 frames...  but just speculation...


As for age of mites,  don't know,  just a thought maybe winter mites and summer mites are also different ??   

Just pointing out after doing it  there seems to be more to the picture than what we see.

Charles

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