Hello Bob,

My picture on Barry's website is from a hive headed by a open mated Harbo
SMR f1 queen from Texas. Mite drop from the open mated Harbo queens has
been lower or about the same as my Russian hives.

I have lost my SMR breeder from Ca. The bees didn't like the degree of
inbreeding and continually tried to supercede her. I grafted one round of
f1's but haven't had them long enough to make any good measurements. I
expect to see the  same range of mite drop I have seen from the open
mated Harbos from Texas.

I have removed about 100 or so uncapped purple eyed pupa from several
frames and found mature female adult varroa mites in all instances but
two. I looked for immatures in about 25 cells and found only 1. Uncapping
about an equal number of sealed brood on the same frames failed to yield
a single mite, even in the drone brood.

In my area of the country, chemical treatment were only 30% effective at
best. Camouphos resistance has been reported in other parts of the world
and now reports of resistance to Oxalic acid have surfaced.

Why not put a few of those SMR's on some 4.9. Let us know what you see.
Maybe the magic bullet is SMR's on 4.9 :>)

Best Wishes
Dennis Murrell