David Eyre wrote: >This is my big concern. We 'don't got' Varroa either. :-}} > I am hoping that before it arrives I will have arrived at an acceptable >control method. As a Queen breeder, I am totally confused. On one hand I >desperately need to breed drones to mate with the queens I raise, but on >the other hand I will be raising Varroa. Honey is not a major concern, but we do get some, which precludes the frequent use of Apistan. Also there are >now concerns that Apistan will weaken the hive. > Formic Acid is accepted here in Canada but that stuff will take your skin >off! Essential oil might be the silver bullet, but here again there are >legal concerns. If concerns about residues in honey prevent the use of Apistan whilst supers on the hive this should surely also apply to use of essential oils and formic acid at this time, quite apart from the concerns about efficacy and safety of these substances when used as varroa treatments. Of course, I don't know the details or scale of your queen rearing programme, but it seems to me that a solution would be to maintain one or more drone colonies per apiary specifically for drone production. These would be strong colonies headed with good queens kept in several brood chambers with an abundance of drone combs but without supers. You could treat these (e.g with Apistan) during the honey flow, if their level of varroa infestation was getting out of hand due to the abundance of drone brood, without breaking any regulations. Towards the end of the season they might be useful in the apiary as a source of combs of brood and honey for nucs etc. James Morton CSL National Bee Unit, UK