"If we do not supplement the colonies at end of winter / early spring  we
will not arrive with good colonies..."

"..We have work hard to develop our own formulas and they seem to work each
day better..."

Well put, well stated.   I have been following the ongoing dialogue and resisted commenting because I am NOT a large commercial bee keeper.  Nor do I have the number of colonies to experiment with or run well controlled experiments and tests.

Over the past 3 to 4 years, my humble perspective from reading what has been published and listening to Randy in several presentations.  The take away is  nutrition, nutrition, nutrition.    

One of the keys to nutrition is variety, variety variety as we know pollen sources are not equal in the protein (and amino acids) they provide and some darn right will starve the bees at the end of the day if that is all they have.

I am an advocate of protein supplements.    When a healthy, vigorous colony needs it (even in a strong nectar and pollen flow), they all over them within 30 seconds of putting them in the hives and are consumed within a short period.   

In attending several sessions with Mel Disselkoen over the past few years and in conversing with him over dinner earlier this month, it is important to always take a 360 degree view of everything and to take mathematical approach to a problem to solve it or to a "solution" to ascertain if the solution is correct.   

Combining the bits of knowledge gleaned from just Randy and Mel....

Adequate nutrition and at least one brood break.  Requeening at least once if not twice each year (once before the swarm season starts in your area and again so the new queen will be mated after the Summer Solstice),  will help knock down the varroa levels.  Yes,  a strong colony will continue to pack in the nectar even when there not a queen actively laying eggs.  Your colonies should not swarm and should be more robust and stronger colonies headed into the Fall.  You may still need to treat if the varroa levels are too high.

No silver bullet yet from what I can see from my perspective, although a lot of snake oil products have come and gone....

To get this spinning off in another direction, the RNAi approach for Varroa Destructor control seems promising, if and when it comes to fruition and to the market for general use.

If you are traveling, may you have a safe and uneventful trip to and from your destination.

Steve Petrilli,   Central, Illinois 

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