I like your attitude about the basis for comparison and the needs for control
of material used and the need to replicate an experiment.
 
The problems in conducting such an experiment is controlling the
environmentduring the experiment. I am not sure that one can really replicate
such an experiment because of the changes in environment. Let us say that in
1996 we have lower
than average daytime temperatures, more fog than usual and heavy rains. These
conditions may be more favorable to the flowers in the area, provide more
natural
pollen and richer nectar.So the colony of bees grows well. What about the
mites or the mold oriented diseases? They may also thrive, but how do we
know.? Next season we try to replicate the size of colony, the treatments
used, but there is nothing we can do to replicate the weather we can only
record the differences and make an intelligent guess of the effect of the
differences.
 
Can you describe or direct me to literature on measuring the effect of
trachael mites
and the devices needed to observe them.