Hello Dennis and All,
Thanks Dennis for sharing your observations with your bees. Although I
believe you and I are on the same page I have removed all but the the
comments about your Russian bees because they were a experiment which was
ending and you used those bees to start your next experiment. Only the most
interested will read our posts due to length but I see no other way other
than length due to being a complex subject.

> I think the reinfestation problem was significant during good flying
> weather,

You believe that reinfestation was a problem so I would say you are most
likely correct.  If so then you really can not trust your results and
conclusions in certain areas. Certain parts of your experiments will need to
be repeated.
.
> With the decrease in reinfestation and the decreasing brood rearing, the
> bees were able to detect and groom off many of the free roaming mites.

My *opinion* is that when varroa infestations are high enough most bees will
try to remove mites by grooming. Kind of like *guarding the hive* . A few do
the job until things reach a certain level.  In my opinion they seem to
ignore grooming till the problem reaches a certain level. All bees are
certainly able to pull/ chew  a varroa and toss out the door!  Having said
that certain bees ARE more hygienic than others and the *removing dead brood
in 24 hours test* proves which are and which are not.   I am a believer in
using bees which are hygienic.

Problems such as a
> higher rate of queen supercedure with the Russians was detected earlier
> than would have happen in a normal production hive. Some of the Russians
> tried to replace their queens about 3 times.

W  e may never know why our bees try to supercede the Russian queens. Must
be something the bees see as wrong. Perhaps a lower natural  pheremone
level, unusual or different laying pattern or simply a different behavior
pattern. Only quesses as I simply do not know the answer.

> These hives had Russian queens installed a year ago, last spring. No
> chemical treatments have been applied since then. I have used several
> hives for non chemical type tests for varroa drop such as grapefruit leaf
> smoke and powder sugar treatment in combination with sugar rolls, natural
> mite fall and sampling for mites, etc. to get a feel for what the amount
> of mite fall means.

Without a idea of the mite levels when the Russian queens were installed and
the mite levels last fall it is very hard to guess but your Russian queens
would have been coming on the two year crash mark right now. The test would
have been incorrect how ever (in my opinion) because you shook down the hive
on to small cell which is a form of varroa control in itself.
>
> These hives were installed on small cell foundation early this spring.
> The Russians, with just a couple of exceptions, drew out the small cell
> foundation. The Russians, except for the expensive breeder,  were then
> replaced with a variety of queens from various suppliers including those
> mentioned above.

I am looking closely at your work for a reason Dennis. To help you draw the
correct conclusions from your observations. When beekeepers like Dennis are
open enough to put their work out for all to see then we can help with ideas
and help draw conclusions. Their are those lurking better able than me to
analize Dennis observations.  Comments?  Any ideas as to mite load when the
other queens were installed?

> I had used low natural mite drop as one of my primary selection criteria
> for bee stock, but with the Russians I wondered in more mite drop might
> indicate fewer mites in the hive. My testing showed that lower mite drop
> reflected fewer mites in the hive

As you can see selecting for mite drop alone as we had done for years leaves
a margin of error. Reinfestation and  drifting drones  complicate the
selection. Why hives on the end of a long row have got a higher varroa load
is not a mystery to me. Selecting for SMR is the better method but beyound
most beekeepers capabilities. I wish other beekeepers had tested the Russian
queens as you did to see the results. I choose to pass on the Russians so I
am of little help. Are any on Bee-L with Russian queens moving past the two
year crash mark untreated?
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison