I had an interesting experience recently. I am curious to know if any others have had the same. I recently established two colonies in the northwoods of Wisconsin - in a rather isolated location. One was queened with a traditional itialian queen, the other with a Hawian queen. After the honey was off this fall, I placed menthol from Mann Lake on each of the hives. The bottom board of the itialian hive had - within 24 hours - 1000's of varoa mites strewn on it. the Hawian hive had few or none. I would anticipate that if the Hawian breeders had the idea that their bees were that tuff on mites, they would have let us all know. Has anyone had a similar experience? Any thought on why the difference? Obviously, I will be splitting the Hawian colony an letting them raise a few new queens for me. Larry Krengel P30LEK1@NIU Marengo, IL (the home of C. C. Miller)