Sounds good Nigel..I vaped the five eight frame colonies again on Tuesday and all have dropped over fifty after two days..I will continue at five day intervils till I am happy ..
On a different note was phoned by Lord Mexborough's factor asking why I hadn't asked his permission to put my bees on his moorland estate land but was selling my heather honey in the local village shop. Puzzled I asked what was going on.....after a long conversation it appeared that he had come across 2 hives on his estate that he had no idea where they where from, so presumed mine. As I explained mine were long gone and were nowhere near the location of these and where on private land (not his . Went to take a look and yes, there where 2 hives, Abelo poly on a nice leveled hive stand with about 3/4 of a super of heather honey in each with a second totally empty super above. Nothing to identify owner or anything and still on the moors. Obviously not worried about varroa and leaving valuable heather harvest as winter stores.
Owner was a ventilation freak as all holes in crown-board open and roof lifted up on wedges to maintain a through draft. Bees were tightly clustered.
Re-arranged to conserved heat for the bees and left polite note in each hive asking owner to contact estate regarding permission to site hives in their moors.