>
> Randy, Are you suggesting treatment free causes high varroa
> infestation rates?


Joe, I there is a vast body of evidence that varroa populations grow to
lethal levels in untreated "naive" colonies of Apis mellifera.  However,
there are a number of populations of bees in North America (such as in your
area) which would no longer be considered to be naive, since they are the
survivors of over 20 years of varroa parasitism.

What I am curious about is just how those survivor populations hold up
against varroa in the unnatural situation of placing dozens of hives in the
same apiary, as there seems to be more of a problem with varroa in larger
apiaries as opposed to smaller.

How about in your case, Joe--how many hives do you successfully keep within
flight distance of one another?

Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm