> Seeley has also done tests in the forest on robbing and found that even at distance the robbers found the hives to rob

Yep. But he only recorded drifting in the hives in close proximity.

While I have seen many large hives collapse spectacularly from varroa overload, I have also seen weaker hives succumb, again as Dick suggested, in very early spring as opposed to winter. In the most recent such example, the mite count was 2 in August and 17 in October. Amitraz did not save the hive, and while it survived the worst of the winter, it was dead by early March.

And no, I don't think that that your hives are collapsing, because you wrote:

> When I do it is basically to put a colony down. Not always to out right kill the colony but rather to remove the brood or brood break with a treatment then requeen with extra queens I keep on hand

So I presume from that statement that you do mite counts, remove and kill the brood from colonies that show escalated counts (whatever your threshold may be), apply a de-facto broodless treatment, and requeen. If that is your practice, then it certainly fits in with what I would consider responsible beekeeping.

If you don't apply a treatment during that period, however, proximity provides one more opportunity for mite transfer.

S

Skillman, NJ

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