How long have you been treatment free?

[cao]

Cao has had some pretty good fortune with TF... Location maybe? Maybe adding number 10 to your list; Location?
'I don't know'. lol

9 years this spring.  Last year was rough, down to around 40 hives.  Most of the losses could be attributed in part to SHB's.  At times it seemed I was raising beetles rather than bees. 

[Ben Framed]

Ben Framed
Cao has had some pretty good fortune with TF... Location maybe? Maybe adding number 10 to your list; Location?
'I don't know'. lol

cao
9 years this spring.  Last year was rough, down to around 40 hives.  Most of the losses could be attributed in part to SHB's.  At times it seemed I was raising beetles rather than bees.

I know Cao: Pesky Small Hive Beetles; Some regions are more fortunate than others when it comes to SHB as well. Skeggley reported recently on another topic that they haven't reached his part of Australia yet. "Still SHB free here too".

I would that they had never expanded to our part of the world or any other part for that matter.... Oh well the cat is out of the bag. As we know, their has been much written 'here' at Beemaster about these pest and ways of dealing with them.
Our newer members can find a treasure chest full of information here via the search engine, if they have the need..

Phillip

[Michael Bush]

Other than three years where I tried treating for Varroa, I've never treated for anything since 1974 and I haven't treated any hives for anything since 2003.  I treated those three years because the causes of my 100% losses were obviously Varroa.  Some winters I have really high losses, but they are the same percent as the people who treat around me.  A really cold winter is a hard winter.  I do post mortems on my lost hives and I don't see hardly any Varroa.  But bees have certainly gotten harder to keep alive since Varroa arrived.