>>> There must be some other factor at work that
allows the wild hives to make it, where commercial hives can't.<<<

Hello Peter and all,
     Tom came to our club a month ago or so. While he said there are 5 or so hives on one edge of the forest I didn't hear that there were many commercial beekeepers. You're from NY. Am I wrong? One more possibility he mentioned was that perhaps the mites, in the forest,  had evolved to what would be a climax condition for them. It may be that they are non-virulent. They no longer kill off their host.This is what they would do if left alone. Every hive dead of mite infestation is a dead end for the mites as well. The tests were done with mites from his yard.

Dick Marron
Thinking that the last thing a fish would discover is water.

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