> docile, and disease/mite free. She does not use any chemicals whatsoever,and
> has been having the highest yields she's ever had in some 15 or so years of
> beekeeping. She says the cell size is a bit smaller, and this might actually
> be a contributing factor to the bee's survival.
>
 It depends on what this method realy is. When you say chemical free do you
 mean nothing is introduced into the hives that act as a poison to the
 mites? When I say nothing I mean both the "man made" as well as the
 "natural". Many people do not seem to understand that some of the
 so-called "essential oils" are very toxic, as much so as most of the
 chemical companies products.

 One of the first rules of life is that if it will kill one thing it will
 kill another. The second rule is that nature has been making better poison
 than man for thousands of years.

 When someone says "I feed this to my bees and the mites died" they are
 putting some form of toxin into the bee that makes the bees "blood" toxic.
 It also is going to get some of that mixed into the incoming nectar which
 will end up in the honey.

 When someone puts something into the hive that contacts the mites and they
 die it is going to get into the wax and maybe a little into the honey. If
 that substance is Food Grade Mineral Oil (FGMO) then the danger to whoever
 gets the honey is very small (FGMO is non-toxic but it can result in some
 problems).

 The final way to kill mites is to put something into the air that causes
 the mites some kind of problem. This is how some kinds of smoker fuel
 cause mite drops and how Formic Acid kills mites.

 The second question is the smaller cell size. You mention that these bees
 are not very defensive. George brings up the fact that the AHB uses a
 smaller cell size, and your friend is in an area where AHB is present. I
 would agree that the hives should be examined by one of your state
 inspectors. If they are AHB then the cell size and resistance to Varroa
 mites is explained. If not then one other thing that should be considered
 is that in the collected colonies you friend may have found bees that have
 genetic resistance to the Varroa mites, if so then we would all like to
 know about that. If they are AHB and not defensive, we would like to find
 out about that as well.