> Unfortunately, there was no flow on, it was January. I
> could only show them sporatic mites being chewed out! No
> mite waves passing thru, no drone brood being cared for and
> cleaned.

This something I've been wondering about. How much mite reproduction do you
get in the drone brood.  The mites did not seem to be doing very well in
the worker brood.  As far as I could tell they did not seem to be
reproducing in worker cells, although we found the occasional mite in a
worker cell.  How many are raised in drone cells?

When you speak of mites waves passing through, are you implying the mite
waves are from outside the hives, or that they have waves of success in
your hives when drones are being raised?

How was the honey flow?  Did you manage to extract a surplus?

allen