When I read Allen Dick's writings, he had no experience about polyhives. The just thought things.
At least in our country the brooding start or stop does not depend on insulation or hive material.
It is pollen in nature which tells to bees when is time to rear brood.
He was comparing poly hive to a wood Hive--poly hive starts brooding earlier --varoa mite can live 5-6 months
with bees that have no brood---because poly hive has brood before the wood hive it gets a huge surge of varoa
flooding into the first round of brood--and thats where they got the higher mite counts -and there was correlation with
the first round of brood having more mites under cap--whether it was poly hive or wood hive---these days the diary is
reflecting his work with poly hives and oxalic -with intense mite counting---RDY-B
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The difference is that I have 23 years experience on polyhives and mites.
I have read all Allen Dick's writings too and he say that Canadian tried a few ago polyhives.
And thies is a first mentioning which says that polyhives has more mites. That is pure imagination.
Polyhives are so long and widely used in Europe that no one has mentioned that.
One thing more. Polyhives and wooden hives stop brooding in Autumn at same time. It tells that Allen did not have experience on polys.
If Allen start to make his trials 20 years later than European professional beekeeprs, it doe not help.
.European varroa group worked on scientific bases several years to find out the best varroa control systems. Now Canada, 10 years later, accepted those results into practice officially.