>
> >Why would you not wait until you can treat per label or simply use
> another treatment?
>
>MAQS strips walk a fine line. Killing varroa without killing queen  and
> brood is a fine line.


You answered your own question.
I breed for mite resistant bees, and never allow mite levels to get high,
so I don't look for treatments to clear the hives of mites--simply to keep
knocking the mites back.  I find that manufacturers set the dose to give
95% mite kill, with not too much stress on the colony.  I don't look for
95% kill, but do look to minimize stress.

I have great success using Apiguard at half dose, sometimes repeating.
I've also gotten satisfactory setback (for me) when experimenting with MAQS
at a single strip.  I'm currently testing more formally.

I had a bunch of growing singles in hot weather that I wanted to knock the
mites back a little in, without shutting the queens down. So I experimented
with a half strip, and preliminary checkback looks like I got the result I
wanted.

Bob, there is no single formula for all beekeepers, nor all hives, nor all
times.

Allen, I find this discussion very interesting.  I'm curious as to why we
get such different results with natural fall and alcohol wash.

The important thing, to me, is to monitor mite levels by whatever method
works consistently for you.  The mites will let you know if you are
successful.


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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