>> I often meet people who are "organic" and are successful, but when I 
>> question them they are using oxalic, formic, wintergreen, thymol or any 
>> other ... I have yet to meet anyone who controls mites with no treatment 
>> or hive manipulation (drone trapping). I have read about them here on the 
>> BeeL, but anyone can say anything here with no proof at all.

> bill, you are welcome to come down to massachusetts some time and see.  we 
> use nothing inside the hive, do not use drone trapping (and have plenty of 
> drone brood by way of foundationless).  whether or not we are "successful" 
> really depends on the definition of "success".

Seeing as you asked -- sort of -- 'success' on this list usually means you 
have done what you promote for five years or so and not had a wreck or had 
to blink.

Regularly, we have people show up enthusiastically and insistently pumping 
the latest and greatest idea and/or denigrating proven techniques.  One size 
fits all, they claim! Often they are quite insistent and claim great 
results.  A year or three later they fall silent and it turns out they lost 
all their bees, or moved on to a 'newer and better' idea.

We have the same sort of thing up here in Canada with the proponents of 
maintaining border closure.  They insist we can all be self-sufficient. 
After all they are, and everyone else should be like them.  Guess what, they 
eventually have a wreck and are really glad that the people they fought 
tooth and nail have ensured that they can get replacement stock.

Not saying you are one of those short-term successes.  You may have things 
going for you like microclimate and other factors that cannot be counted on. 
You also may not currently have neighbours who bring surprises.

Maybe you will have long-term success, but the odds are against you.

Good luck.

allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/pix/
---
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the 
zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - ) 

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