For Isis again:
14% mites in Autumn is probably high enough to kill the
hives over winter.

Reply:
Well, Isis I couldn't refrain from forwarding your email to
Hans-Otto via Erik, as they had just finished visiting here
where we exchanged much information and should have been
about home. This is what came back.
. . . . . . . ..  . . . . .

Hi Dee
If you want to you can share with Bee-L the following.
Erik
.......
Prof Ingemar Fries has in his so called Bond test on the
island
Gotland in the Baltic i Scandinavia  concluded that when
colonies are left to their own more or less and not treated
for varroa the threshold for surviving winter is 35% mites
on bees when broodless in October.

Johnsen said in his article that he expected 5-7%
winterloss last
winter. Around 5% is what he got according to personal
information from him.

Now the recommendations below is grounded on the fact the
treatments with drugs are made, which surely will not leave
the colonies uneffected. Johnsen's colonies, as Fries' on
Gotland, were not treated with any drug at all.
.........







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