Randy,
I was in a bee yard down in Florida couple weeks ago near the orange groves 
and many
commercial beeks. The beek -who is very knowledgeable beek has a
survivor/thriver hive that has had essentially no treatments for 3 
years(just
a few scattered dustings of sugar-from his description they were so random 
and rare they had no effect)
He has in his words "melted down"    stock sold as varroa resistant, but
this hive is booming.
He is a hard nosed beek who was skeptical about mite resistant stock in
commercial operations. His theory is that the drones from the many
surrounding colonies vector in an overwhelming number of mites.

Now here is something to listen to(and I think it is a touch exciting):

He told me that I was the only person that didn't look at him like he was
from Mars when he told me that the varroa levels  in that hive actually go
DOWN later in the year...say from mid  spring to mid summer.
He looked at me like he had found a long lost brother when I expressed 
hearty agreement  with his observations!

I could relate because I have gotten very little "belief" -or at least 
acknowledgement-when I have communicated this observation (once on Bee-L a 
few years back) to others.

I have observed this in my hives so often that I have essentially no doubt
that it is an accurate  observation.  He reinforced this.I will add that the
numbers may fall on the order of half  the count of   mites from spring  to
summer.!!!

Now the means by which I count mites is through percent drone
infestation-don't know his.

In my  breeder hives I don't observe high infestations at any time..

Also-separate issue: Randy you noted that hives enclosed in greenhouses only 
survived 2 cycles of brood on supplemental feeding only.
Do you know the "symptoms" that were shown in the hives before they died?

Thanks for any comments
John 

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