In message <[log in to unmask]>,
Aaron Morris <[log in to unmask]> writes
>If 50 mites over 24 hours is what you find without having treated
>against
>varroa (natural fall out) then this is a hell of a investation. You can
>propably assume that the number of mites left in the colony is abot 100
>-
>200 (some scientists even suggest up to  300) times of that.
Research in the UK with UK bees gave as a reasonable rule of thumb that
x30 daily mite fall gives the total mite number in the main brood
rearing season; x400 without brood; x100 in between. As mite numbers
increase above 2500 (in a typical UK colony) the probability of colony
demise increases with mite number. January in NZ is equivalent to July
in the North, so we can presume about 1500 at the time of the original
posting.
--
James Kilty

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