Allen Dick asked for clarification of the advice to reduce tracheal
   mites, by making splits, and removing them after a few days flight.
 
   The idea is to make splits from tracheal mite infested colonies, leave
   the splits near the parent colonies for a few days, then remove the
   splits to a new location. In field trials of this method, the splits
   ended up with only about 10 % of the infestation (% of bees with mites)
   as the parent hives (both groups had new queens). That's as good as a
   chemical treatment.
 
   Possibly it results from the older (infested) bees returning to the
   parent hives, while a cohort of relatively less infested bees ended up
   in the splits, and continued to out-reproduce the mites.
 
   The parent hives could be treated, or used as "dead-end" units, used for
   honey production then killed.
 
   Kerry Clark, Apiculture Specialist
   B.C. Ministry of Agriculture
   1201 103 Ave
   Dawson Creek B.C.
        V1G 4J2  CANADA          Tel (604) 784-2225     fax (604) 784-2299
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