>There are people promoting the use of pheromones (AKA Bee Boost), probiotics, and whatever else to restore, remediate, or stimulate bee colonies. My question for you is: do you regard these as "treatments" and therefore, inherently a sort of interference, or are they OK because they promote health rather than attempt to control some imbalance (such as parasites)? That is a loaded question... checkmite corrected an imbalance of parasites... I the strict sense, everything we do and use to keep our bees healthy is unnatural and could be considered a treatment or therapy, from screened bottom boards and powdered sugar dusting to dumping toxic chemicals in the hive. They are all intended to control something in an attempt to have healthy bees. It comes down to the line you personally draw between 'treatment' and (i'm not sure there is a good word for it) ... 'non treatments' (which promote health by _treating_ the bees with something or some process that will affect them). For some no treatment means no feeding, chemicals or any substance added to the hive by the beekeeper. Others draw the line a bit closer to the man-made toxic chemical end of the spectrum. -Tim *********************************************** 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