> I think Fries sums it up. Very little is known about its biology and 
> management. Each researcher running studies is trying to come up with a 
> "one size fits all situations" hypothesis.

 I think I know what Bob is saying here.  We hear of partial solutions and 
conditional solutions, but what everyone is looking for is a solution which 
is universal.  People loved Apistan and then Checkmite+, and now in our 
area, Apivar, because they are universal and simple answers, albeit 
temporary, to a complex problem.  People love formic and oxalic less because 
they are more difficult and less certain.  We look for magic bullets.

> People many times think that for some reason the hives used in studies are 
> not susceptible to the common issues beekeepers face. ALL studies today 
> are *tainted* with a margin of error which could easily be up to 30% due 
> to queen issues , nutrition issues etc.

Well, those of us who have attempted any scientific experiments wonders 
about this after having been personally confronted with how to deal with 
hive deaths, accidents, vandalism, environmental effects, unexpected 
disease, missing data, etc.  when that very decision is subjective and could 
alter the conclusions materially.

Having discovered our own fallibility, we then begin to wonder about others 
and particularly those who never seem to admit and discuss such issues.

> Researchers used to publish conclusions about hives with only 4-6 used in 
> the study and even today from maybe a half dozen caged bees.

And no replications.  Don't you just love it when a new study (one) comes 
out and everyone believes it regardless of where it was published and 
without reading it carefully.

> I once asked at an ABF convention in a room of the largest beekeepers in 
> the U.S. the number of beekeepers which had EVER had a researcher ( 
> USDA-ARS or other) visit and look at hives. Less than 10 hands went up.

That is an interesting observation.  Also, that is a pretty unreliable poll, 
unless you gave them all lots of time to look at one another and see what 
the right answer was.  Were you out to prove some particular hypothesis? 

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