Jerry Wallace wrote:

>I don't entirely agree with comments I read that strong hives aren't  at
>risk.

Peter posted:
> according to a study by Dr. A. E. Lundie (Union of South Africa, Science
Bulletin 220, 1940, 30 pp.),

When SHB entered the U.S. the above study was about all you got when you
searched the net.

Quite a bit is now known but little published work except for Jamie Ellis. I
do not believe researchers have said strong hives were not at risk but
rather that strong hives are the best defense. Which is what I also believe.

We now know that although SHB can be found in most hives in an area of known
SHB most SHB live away from the hive but enter a hive for the most part to
reproduce. Kind of like the tree borer which lays its eggs at the base of a
tree.

There are many definitions of *strong hive*. Strong hive in my opinion means
a hive when you tilt the top box the bottom of the frames are covered. You
smoke the frames and the bees move away but are back in a couple minutes.

In Florida you see very little SHB in the above hives. The SHB numbers seem
to go up the weaker the hive from my observations.

However some races seem to tolerated SHB more than others.

bob


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