At the risk of getting singed I thought I'd jump into the discussion
before it dies a well deserved death. Being a psychologist and used to
working with murky stuff I can countenance opposites at the time. Jim is
technically right but to me, intuitively wrong. Here's why. A set of data
points need not be taken over time to be relevant. Having a yard with 12
colonies allows me to check them all. It stands to reason that they didn't
all start at the same place in the spring. Some will be more hygienic and
others may drift more carrying mites around. Add in your favorite variables.
Some will be over any threshold. The mite counts give me 12 data points
that, while taken at the same time, allow for a graph. The curve thus
generated gives a picture of the progression of mite growth, since each
point actually depicts varroa in a different stage of taking over. Then I
can squint my eyes really hard, compress the mean, the median and the mode
and intuit a number I can live with. Or not. Don't tell me it doesn't mean
anything and don't trouble me with logic. It helps if I put my fingers in my
ears so I can't hear Jim winding up to bowl again. 

     Will my number mean anything to my Fl yard of 12 hives. I'll certainly
consider it if I find a time of year that correlates. 

      Einstein is reputed to have said, "I have the answer. What remains is
to find out how I got it." I have tried to make logical something I know but
have never tried to m express in a linear fashion.

 

Dick Marron

(Happily noting that my untreated hives have no mites. Zero. Nada. Nil.
Zed.. Curve that.) 

 

 


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