Hi Guys

When I returned from Florida, I retrieved my hives from a migratory commercial yard that was crawling with mites even though the beekeeper was continuously treating. Many of his hives had a non-descript treatment resistant foulbrood which he was treating with own tylosin mix. Most of the hives had normal looking populations, but most of the queens had very spotty brood patterns and had been superceded or replaced.

Here's how I screwed up. I inspected my hives and found none of the problems mentioned above. In fact, mite populations were very low. 

The following season, seven hives dawdled along. The rest made no honey. It was a bad crop year. Still no mite problems. Even though these bees had been through similar seasons, they never failed to build up or produce. I assumed no mites - no problem. Bad mistake!

The next season spotty brood, poor overwintering, failing queens, languishing hives. But still assuming low mites meant  no problem? I  split, requeen and fed them, breaking down the few good hives I had left with the dinks. Disaster!

I ended up with a bunch of languishing hives that failed to fed, very spotty brood patterns, eventually a foulbrood like disease. And in the end, typical CCD looking dead hives with low mite counts all along the way.

I focused on the mites and assumed....

Moral of the story: I'd missed the big picture. My bees went down the same path as the commercial beekeeper's bees did irrespective of how we treated or what we treated our bees with.

On another note, the ant test sounds interesting and I've sure got the resources/time. :-) 

Regards - Dennis

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