Hello All,
 
 We are starting to recieve spring here in western Washington State USA.
So I'm doing my first real inspection down to the bottem board.
 I have learned a few things that might help someone else.
 
 First.  I used Apistan strips in early september, then 2 weeks later I
put a sheet of paper towel with about 2 cc's of wesson oil and pepermint
oil. ( the oil mix was 6 drops of pepermint oil to 1/2 gallon of wesson
oil.Two weeks later ,I checked the bees and noticed that all of the paper
towls was out side the hive.Then I mixed up 3 pounds of crisco a pint of
honey and a teasepoon of pepermint oil. To that mixture I added granulated
sugar to thicken it up some. I spread about a tablespoon of the mixture
over the ends of the frames in each box. ( one box - one tablespoon.)
  The normal preperation for winter then was added. Good stores ,
ventilation ( I used a new inter cover to help get out the moisture, plus
I put closed cell insulation over the bees ( 1 and 2 inches thick ) I did
not see any differance between the use of one over the other.
 The results are mine blowing.I lost one out of 50. the queen just kept on
laying. I have one that is in two deeps and two 6 5/8 in. boxs and all 4
boxs are full of brood.I knew my bees did look good , but not that good.
 One part of this is very important. Use more that one gun to get the
mites.I put in some apistan strips yeasterday to check for varroa. This
morning I could not find any on the sticky boards. I only did 3 hives. I
will do more. My bees look healthy and if you have watched them as long as
I have , you can tell if something is wrong.
 The mite kicked me hard the year before and from know on its my
turn.Beware-- don't just start mixing up anything. Mint oil is extremly
variable.It is toxic to the bees if it is too strong. That is why we need
to have some standards set and need more research. I do think that the
oils and breeding are the answers.We need very healthy brood that is
raised in a natural inviornment.By hitting them like I did, I belive that
the number that is left in the total of all of my hive is close to  O. We
will see, but when all of your hives look like they are ready to swarm
with very high populations of , you can't have much of any kind of a
problem. We have had very rainy weather , so they have been do there thing
with a negative enviornment to expand with.
 I'm sorry I did not do any controls , but I wanted live bees and kick
that mites back side.
 
 Best Regards
 Roy