>September 24/48 hour natural fall mite counts averaged 3 - 5 mites. No hives were over 10. Did sugar rolls counts on 8 big two year old hives to double check and mite counts were all less that 3%. Our summer dearth here with our long natural brood break and 100 + high summer temperatures really nocks down the mite population. Thank you for giving us these actual numbers Don! This really helps for informed discussion. Could you please tell us what area you are in, and whether there is any Africanization in your area? I also notice that hot, dry weather is really tough on mites. How do your bees do in non drought years? FWIW, let's look at the big picture. The honey bee population in North America is in the middle of an evolutionary transition from being varroa naive to eventually being varroa tolerant. I feel that there should be little debate that at some point in the future the bee population of N. America will be predominately resistant to varroa. The percentage of treatment-free beekeepers is a simple way to document this transition. To me, this is more interesting that arguing for or against treatment free--I'm just interested in following the progression of an expected course of evolution. -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** 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