> So, in the context of practicing Darwinian beekeeping, is it fair to say that in your situation you are not actually able to adhere to the basic Darwinian tenet of colony spacing.
> Is it essential. No.
Unfortunately, Seeley himself has shown that spacing is extremely important in keeping mites under control, as grouped colonies showed late-season influxes from robbing out crashing colonies whereas spaced colonies did not. It also negated any advantage of swarming in dropping mite counts. A quick search found that paper here. [ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13592-015-0361-2 ]
S
Skillman, NJ
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