We have no issues with normal pests in our operation.  We use no chemicals.  Nosema and Mites are non-issues.  We have never had any E/A foul-brood diseases.  We add Nozevit and OPTIMA to our candy boards.  3" candy depth in boards. You want to be sure to run screws in from the top and flip empty candy board over and string foundation wire all around and between the exposed screws prior to pouring in candy.  This helps prevent "candy bombing" later in the winter; you don't want chunks of candy falling out on frames.
We have at least 2.5' of snow on the hives at this time and expect to be closer to 10' to 12' before winter slows down, therefore we can't change out candy boards mid winter.  We also bank the hives with snow as soon as we can.  
Not many talk about follower boards but we like them as well.  
I am working with an Electronic Physicist in France placing up to 24 sensors in each test hive and we track cluster movement via sat linkup throughout the winter.   Follower boards seem to be helpful.  The testing is not complete but looks promising (a bit expensive at $2500.00 per hive) - good enough that we plan on building enough to place in all our hives winter.
Joe Carson
Alaska Heavenly Honey 		 	   		  
             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm