What jumps out at me from the data about the experiment is how you treat for mites in May and twice in June and then have your bees crash in Oct?

If I was from Bayer I would be thinking geez this commercial beekeeping does not look sustainable.  If I understand correctly only 3 of the original 24 colonies survived.

I don't get it, its not like I'm the best beekeeper in the world but as a stationary operation with my bees in a brutal 4 month MN winter I can keep my losses under 25-30% a year with winter and mite losses combined and only treat production colonies once in the fall (wintering nucs get no treatment). I don't think I am some unique exception either. The out dated idea you have to move your bees south to keep them alive just does not look like that is working anymore.

Here's an experiment to propose. Take a traditional migratory operation and leave half the operation in the north stationary for a year and run the rest ragged around the country and see how the survival ends up. 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Access BEE-L directly at:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L