> Well, Allen, I don't see any brilliant responses!  I'm as curious as you.
>  I'd sure like to see the results of a few alcohol washes of 300 bees, which
> is a more direct assessment of mite infestation rate.  If you don't have one
> of Medhat's shakers, you can do with a simple kitchen sieve and bowl.

Thanks, Randy.

I have several, and have done hundreds if not thousands of shakes, however,
these hives are in four EPS boxes full of honey and to do a shake, I would
have to take them apart and pull frames.  That is a sure-fire way to harm
and/or kill hives at this late date.  Finding brood could be impossible and the
job would be a huge one.

It also seems pointless to me since I have correlated mite drop to shaker results
previously at this time of year and have reasonable confidence in the drop
tests.  After all, I am not looking for scientific accuracy, but merely a ballpark
idea and whether I need to worry and when.

I need to sample a bit longer, but I know that if I got zero over six hive-days,
I am not going to see much.

We ran thousands of hives for years using only natural drops for monitoring and
during that time never knowingly lost one hive to varroa, so drops are my
preferred method.  I goofed up last year due to not being set up to do them simply.
This year I have the appropriate bottoms on six hives and checking is a s simple as
walking to the yard and back.

Anyhow, I`ll be going out shortly for the ``day two`` sample and report back.

It seems curious to me that I am not seeing varroa since the hives I bought must
have had some, and I have done nothing all season that is particularly different
from previous years.

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