Hi All

>  This has to do with the resistant hives doing housecleaning on the mites
> every so often.  At those times, they will have higher drops, in spite of
> actually having fewer mites.

Whilst I consider 'housecleaning' and 'mite damaging' to be separate
characteristics of bees. The principle holds good and we must be certain in
our own minds that the mite drop we see is related to the infestation level
or the rate of mite damaging.

Another complication is that a high total number of mites in a colony can
indicate good tolerance by the bees or that the mites are out of hand.

Only by repeated drop monitoring can we establish which is likely in each
case, and when we are wrong the colony ends up dead.


Best Regards & 73s... Dave Cushman, G8MZY
Beekeeping & Bee Breeding Website...
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman