Hello, or Svakes, as they say. I've been up here in Riga, Latvia for the past four days or so and have to say that I've been missing my bees. I was able to contact some local beekeepers and with the aid of "rusty" english and a Latvian to English dictionary comunicate. Appearantly, they DON'T have varroa mites. What surprised me is that all that I spoke to use 14 frame hives, deeps at that. It's still around 55 degrees farenheit and I, being from Florida, am FREEZING! Appearantly, most around here use buckfast bees. The cost of honey(medus) is much better here for the beekeeper too, 1 Lat and 20 Santimu for 8 ounces of honey (if felt like 8 ounces anyway). With the lat being at about $1.75 you can do the math. All in all, very little communicated, very much confused. One thing I found interesting is that someone was handing out pamphlets with recomended daily amounts of honey, pollen, bee bread and royal jelly. And, yes, I'll be here for the next week and a half.
Take copius notes, photos, and be sure to share when you get back.
One of my customers is a U.S Ambassador to Latvia, he also owns a farm there. He brought me some honey back the last time he went. Have a good trip!