I want to ask the experienced beekeepers on the list for some practical 
advice related to the thread I've continued above.  I'm going to be moving 
soon, about 25 miles, and I'm going to want to move my bees closer to my 
new place.  My question is, particularly with regards to mites spreading 
from more to less heavily infested hives, how do I ideally want to locate 
my hives?  

I'll be running about 80-150 production hives plus about 50 nuc boxes 
divided 2 or 4 ways.  I'd like to have all my bees within 5 miles of home, 
certainly no more than 10 miles.  I would consider it a nice benefit if I 
could gain more control over the drones my queens mate with.  The way I 
keep bees I know I'm going to have a percentage of hives with fairly high 
mite loads that I won't always want to deal with immediately, so there 
will be potential for mite problems to spread.

Insofar as I can find a practical way to do it, should I try to isolate my 
colonies with heavy mite loads?  With other beekeepers (mostly small 
numbers) and wild nests in the area, will it matter how I locate my 
hives?  The study Peter cited indicated that proximity within a 2 mile 
radius didn't really matter when it came to mites spreading, but I'm 
thinking drift might be a bigger issue in larger yards.  What do you all 
think about numbers of hives per yard and distance between yards 
(especially when it comes to spreading mites)?

Eric

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