To elaborate-

I fed Randy's essential oil formula in April/May and August/Sept of 2010. I
fed for 21+ days to cover the brood cycle. Also, I fed the lemongrass and
spearmint in spring but not in late summer because of problems I noted in
spring. The added odors did disrupt the colony as I had swarming problems.
The pheromone issues with essential oils definitely came into play in
spring.

The only monkey wrench in the trial is that I have a non-treating beekeeper
about 600 yards away so I could have had robbing and a re-infestation of
Varroa after the treatment. All four colonies were strong with good supplies
of honey going into winter. One was three deeps.

I will be tearing the dead outs apart in the next week so will have a better
idea of what did them in. What was nice is that Mike's Varroa resistant
queen/colony survived. Sort of had another trial with the essential oils.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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