Randy:

I'm not sure that you followed my drift on isolation.  the problem with
testing for mite resistance is that the group with more mites will feed
mites to the other group f they are in the same yard, and lessen the
differences between groups.

My response:

That is exactly what I was addressing. This is a major consideration.  Tom Seeley has been looking into drifting and believes he has worked out a distance at which colonies do not drift. I think that if two yards were situated in a large enough field where they could be separated by a half mile, the apiary effect would not be a factor, given that conditions were virtually identical. However, the real problem is probably not drifting at all, but robbing. It seems likely that as colonies begin to succumb to varroa, other colonies will start to enter these hives to steal from them. Not full on robbing, but more like shoplifting.

Pete


- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Peter Loring Borst
128 Lieb Road
Spencer, NY  14883
peterloringborst.com

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