Hi Dennis One of my best friends has not treated for mites in many years. He runs around 150 hives on average. He has told me that he loses a lot of bees, but that he just keeps dividing the ones the are left and requeens with mite resistant queens he raises. Keeping bees without chemicals is a lot more work, I suppose. More than one hour per hive per year! But there is the satisfaction of a job well done, and the sense of being part of the future -- instead what's left of an outmoded past. Pete *********************************************** 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