Dee, Picking figures from a table in the back of Bailey's lecture. From all localities in the county of Hertfordshire (UK) over a 5 year period there were an average of 5.1 colonies per site and 6.1% of them were infested with A.woodi. During the same period the 18 apiaries operated by the Rothamstead Horticultural Research Station having an average of 14 colonies per site had 29% of them infested. In the county of Oxfordshire a few years later the overall density was 4.8 hives per site and 5.4% were infested whereas in 1 commercial apiaries averaging 29 hives per site there was 40% infestation. This was some years ago and I have no idea what size foundation was being used then. He doesn't mention propolis and I doubt if its antibiotic and anti viral properties were recognised then and people were trying to select for bees that gathered less propolis. I think some still are, despite its value as a bye product of the hive. Chris ChrisIn a message dated 20/04/2007 11:16:59 GMT Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: Chris: Some how I am not seeing this as written about in the bees I keep that are smaller. But then they have more access to varied propolis/resins from more varied floral sources,also that is critical to broodnest sterilization and injested by the bees themsleves. So am I wrong in assuming that the bees looked at by Bailey were on enlarged combs FWIW being maintained? What were the parameters of the bees looked at for living/maintenance? Ferals, or domesticated and then what type? Dee A. Lusby ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************