The discussion on apiary effect is informative, but the issue is small cell and Varroa. So, even if there is an apiary effect, if SC really works, then all that would happen is a higher Varroa load from robbing that the SC bees would easily overcome. If you remove the apiary effect, you still have to have a Varroa source to see if SC works, so you are right back to adding colonies without SC and with Varroa. So, in this case, the apiary effect validates the experiment. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine *********************************************** 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