>>the initial losses I heard of were stated as greater then 50%...
its hard to beleive that mites would take out the nucs. 

I thought the same thing when reading the first report.  Kirk has said in his articles that his production colonies losses vary from light to heavy from winter to winter but that his nucs come through with flying colors.

Anyone know if Kirk's losses were equal in the nucs and production colonies?

I've been overwintering extra queens in nucs for a number of years and hardly ever lose a nuc.  This is not the case for my production colonies.  This past winter they declined a lot - particularly the ones that had the highest honey yields last season.  It's good to have nuc with queens to replenish! 

Waldemar

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