Max wrote

"I agree that the most practical way to determine whether a varroa
treatment
is necessary or not is to monitor the colony closely, checking mite fall;
it
makes no commercial or practical sense to treat a hive if there are no or
very few mites in it."

I respectfully disagree. If you have an apiary of 10 hives, and 2 show
lots of Varroa, and 8 show little, I would treat the whole apiary.
Treating only the two typically would require more treatments in the long
run. I realize I've only got 100 hives, but still, using the same
agricultural practices that I used on larger commerical table grape and
mellon farms, specifically methodical, systematic and thourogh treatments,
I'm in to my third year with one November aplication of Check-mite, and my
drone larvae are spotless. To treat just one hive or two will just result
in reinfecting the hives you treat now a few months after treatment.

Regards
Tim

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::