Just a few thoughts:

It seems to me that in most cases "darwinian beekeeping" or perhaps even any "treatment free" approach would only work in isolation or when *all* the beekeepers within a hives maximum flight radius agree to manage their hives sans acaricides. The results of a hobbyist with a handful of hives surrounded by commercial apiaries could be wasteful, potentially damaging, and ultimately expensive (when new packages or nucs are purchased after the hives crash).

Another thought that came to mind after reading Seeley's book was that it would probably be preferable to disallow robbing from weak or dead colonies which crashed from a varroa/dwv infestation. Seely noted how good varroa are at climbing aboard robber bees as they sit motionless in a dead out.

I would suggest to any beekeeper with an apiary in an area with a high density of other beekeepers to A.) monitor for varroa, and B.) have a plan (treatment) for *when* mite levels rise above a 2-3% threshold. Of course use resistant stock (does that even exist?), local if possible.

-Travis

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