> I don't get it. No one has checked your numbers for 5
> years? You are not doing any mite counts yourself? I
> thought most beekeepers were checkingtheir hives for mites.
> It isn't very hard to do.

Sure, but I looked pretty carefully at their bees and couldn't see any
evidence of troublesome numbers of varroa or the well-known symptoms of
varroa damage.  I did not do any alcohol washes, and there was no drone
brood at that time, but we did uncap some worker brood.  The only mites we
could find were in a very few cells and only on occasional frames of
otherwise beautiful worker brood.  In every case, the bees had already
uncapped the cell in question, and even then there was only one mite that
we could find in that cell.

Granted this is a pretty informal examination, but if you believe that
these bees have not been treated for a long time, if ever (and I do), I
would have expected to see mites all over the place in at least a few of
the 100 or so hives we looked at.

Dee doesn't claim to be a researcher.  She doesn't have a mite problem
although mites have been around her district for many years and she should
know what varroa damage looks like since she and Ed suffered varroa
collapse some years ago.  Why, then should she be doing mite counts?  I
wouldn't waste my time with that either.

Should she stop telling people what works for her?  I wouldn't.

She isn't selling anything, she is giving what she has freely to those who
care to know.

Is it for everyone?  I doubt it.

But it's nice to know that it works for them and a growing circle of
friends.

allen