I am having problems this year with Black Queen Cell Virus in my queen raising hives. Mite levels are a bit higher than normal in my whole operation for this time of year. Perhaps nosema levels are higher too, since hives being buried in the snow all winter was conducive to nosema buildup. What I am wondering (and have not found any references to it in the archives) is at what stage the larva is affected. We marked all the finisher hives that had BQCV and stopped using those. The situation seemed to improve, but now some finishers that were performing well before are showing some BQCV and I am wondering whether it is coming from the starter hives. I normally bring boxes home and shake nurse bees into the starters every week and then put brood frames in with the finishers. I suppose I will have to try making up some new starters, but I would like to know more about BQCV and how it affects brood so I can try and get past this problem. Information or pointers to information on the web would be appreciated. Stan *********************************************** 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