: * So far I haven't been able to find anyone here using this IPM process to manage the mites without the need to treat every Spring and Autumn. * :
Perhaps that is because it does not work? It is difficult to sort and understand the rationale of your method described in the thread here. It just sounds like you are moving infested brood from one hive into setting up another infested hive. Or taking good brood from one hive and putting it into another to be infested. You are also raising queens in mite infested, and thus virus infested hives. All the while, weakening and stressing the colonies as well as spreading mites to other hives in your apiary and ultimately to your neighbours hives as the bees drift. It appears your process has this going on for months on end. I am concerned. I am not convinced this significantly reduces mites overall. I am convinced all this accomplishes is spread the mites across more colonies. While initially it may appear they are reduced, reality is all that has been accomplished is having spread them out and given them more nest space. Take apart a colony that has 1000 mites. Break it up and setup 10 more colonies-nucs. You now have 10 colonies that have 100 mites. Yay, the mite numbers have been cut by factor of ten. No, actually you still have 1000 mites in your apiary which are now brooding across 10 queens instead of 1 queen. You have actually just increased your mite production by a factor of 10.
You have to monitor mite levels regularly. When they reach the threshold level needing action you really have only two options. Treat it or Terminate it. Be prompt, expedient, practical, and pragmatic about it.
If you do not wish treat nor terminate, the question to be answered is what are you hoping to save? Save the bees? At high mite loads the bees are already dead. They just do not know it yet. Meanwhile they are still walking around freely infesting other bees and other colonies with mites and viruses vectored by the mite. Save the queen? This is easy to do. Remove the good queen and promptly kill the infested hive in entirety. To terminate does not mean breakup the hive. It means kill all bees and all brood in it. Freeze all the frames to kill the hidden under cap mites. Then reassemble the hive, restock it with a few frames of bees from a healthy hive, then put the queen back in or place new mated queen. You can easily do all of that in two days. 100% effective, efficient, stops the threat stops the spread, and is much more expedient than what has been described. Also a lot less stressful on all the bees in your apiary.
You cannot control mites by moving frames around or squishing the ones you see. You may be able to delay their effect for a time, but ultimately they will be overwhelming. For every mite you see and pinch there are thousands that you do not. The point is when you discover a mite level needing action, it is not a casual thing. It must be all out and full on war on them. You must kill them in mass numbers in any one of various ways that fits your preference. If you are not prepared to do that, then your bees, the rest of your apiary, and your neighbouring beekeeping community will all be much better off if you promptly kill the hive and just stop beekeeping altogether. If mites are high in a hive, treat it or kill it.
You can treat in a multitude of ways either organically or inorganically that suits you. If you are a no treatment at all type and want a brood break, please kill the hive and restock as already described. (There is your brood break). Prefer to let survivors survive and the weak die off. Please kill the hive and restock with your good bees strain. (There is your natural selection). End the bees suffering and stop the mite bomb sources from festering and propagating to other colonies and to your neighbours. Upon discovering a high mite load, to do anything other than promptly treating it or terminating it, is irresponsible. A source of propagation of the problem.
If you are actually seeing free running mites in the hive and you are catching them with tweezers ....... it may be suggesting that the mite load is very much higher than you believe it to be. No, I do not believe your hives are at all healthy based on what is posted and read here. You should be quite concerned about your bees and your methods.
Do you sample mite load by alcohol wash? What are the numbers? Show the data ...