assume: ass-u-me

Now that we have gone over this and how I knew better, how I was rocked to sleep, and how I made made assumptions, (the most ridiculous of which was that losses would be limited and that the 'resitant' stock I had would prove its worth and show the 'ordinary' bees to be inferior), let's discuss the obstacles that kept me from doing what had served me well in the past -- routine natural mite drops and appropriate treatment as indicated.

As I said before, I ran thousands of hives commercially and never knowingly lost one commercial hive to varroa during that time. I knew what my mite profile was and responded appropriately at all times, it seems.

Why did I screw up this past season?

First, I had seen no problems in the past several years with splitting very drastically and repeatedly and then dosing with oxalic solution once in fall, so assumed that this would continue to be good enough control. I was also looking for mites in brood and seeing few and no mites -- and no riders.  That that confirmed my false confidence that all was well. I have no beekeeping neighbours.   Additionally, I had been corresponding with beekeepers who told tales of 'survivor bees' and resistance, so figured that having higher levels than I would commercially tolerate would not be a concern if they occurred.

Second, I had expanded my hive numbers to where what was normally a small job became a large job and required preparation and endurance.

Thirdly, I in recent years, had developed large, heavy (three to five storey) hives in ponderous and fragile EPS boxes and they were seldom shorter than three. Since the floors were not all perfectly scraped and some brood frames had wax protrusions on the bottom, shoving the drop boards in was not easy -- and prying up these large, heavy hives placed back-to-back on four-way pallets was not do-able. In the past, we just pried up on wood boxes and hives were only two or three high, so they did not press against one another, preventing tipping. EPS does not stand up well to pressure from pry bars.

Fourthly, I did not do alcohol washes due to the difficulty of reaching the brood down in these tall hives and my reluctance to kill the necessary number bees. Also, since the hives were of many strains and differing ages, I figured that I would have to do more than a sample to get a profile of the yard.  Normally most hives in a commercial yard are similar in history and stock, so sampling any hive is as good as sampling any other, assuming it is not queenless. If you sample 10-15% of the hives in a yard, you have a good idea if there are hot spots.  Not so with a varied yard like this.

So, since I was not seeing mites, I assumed that things would be fine until I treated and the first warning was some PMS, followed within weeks by total collapse of many strong hives and severe dwindling of the rest.

That is how I screwed up.

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