>
> >Were cells examined to see how reproduction was taking place in both
> types?
>
Other studies have done so, and sometimes found varroa reproducing more
efficiently in the small cells!

>
> >Does a hive with small cells have more bees than one with "normal" cells?
> If so then a figure of mites per 100 bees would give a false figure.  It
> should be mites as a percentage of the number of bees in the hive.
>

This problem has to do with the testing method.  I explain in my article in
press in ABJ.  Alcohol wash quantifies the *rate* of infestation; natural
drop reflects the *total mite population* of the hive (however, natural drop
does not correlate linearly nor directly).

>
> >Again with mite drop were these mites reproduced in that hive.  Could the
> mites have come in from other hives?
>
Yes, but one would expect roughly equal immigration into both test and
control hives.  The caveat being that net relative immigration is greater
for hives with low mite populations.
-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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