>What I am curious about is just how those survivor populations hold up
against varroa in the unnatural situation of placing dozens of hives in the
same apiary, as there seems to be more of a problem with varroa in larger
apiaries as opposed to smaller.

The focus seems to be on numbers, but I would 
propose as a control, to create a few smaller 
apiaries from these larger apiaries to help rule
out the management factor.  As most smaller 
apiaries in my area are probably built from swarms,
and I would suppose most larger apiaries in 
commercial outfits are derived from splits and 
grafting.

>How about in your case, Joe--how many hives 
do you successfully keep within flight distance of 
one another?

I have 12 colonies plus 2 bee trees ;)
within 3 miles of each other.

I keep 3 apiaries with blocks in place for 
10 colonies at each location, if I can manage
to find time to expand the operation.  Beekeeping 
has been on the back burner for me lately
due to being a bit over extended with 
commitments.  I'm thinking, now that the 
bees have gained resistance and require far
less attention, I may perhaps be able to 
finally expand.

J. Waggle

 

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