Sorry to hear about your loss. <The moral of the story? If there is a moral to be found,,, It is to remember to distinguish the reason for the mortality,, IE. <they were starting to crash. PMS... from the circumstantial evidence, such as a failure to treat. A consideration for the possibility that the colonies were 'lacking in resistant traits' must be equally considered as the cause, if one were to blame 'failure to treat' as the cause. Breed for resistance, dont depend solely on treatments. This, I would tell any beekeeper in my area that lost colonies under similar circumstances, its not easy to take, I know. Will get my bullet proof vest on now. Best Wishes, Joe Waggle *********************************************** 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 Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm