Varroa treament done

I went in today and removed the Mite-away quick strips.  They looked pretty dried out.  I examined the sticky board and made a rough count of 150 mites.  Over 7 days, that's only 20+ per day.  So, was treatment necessary?  Was it helpful?  I certainly don't know.
There is a lot of honey, 6 full frames in the top super and 8 in the middle.  I was tempted to take out a frame for a taste treat but refrained.

Now I'm thinking ahead to spring.  I want to start another Langstroth hive as well as Olea's top bar hive.  I plan to split my colony to make the Langstroth and to try to capture a swarm for the top bar.  I've been reading about how to split a hive.  Several sources say to take the divided hive 3-5 miles away from the original.  I don't think I'll be doing that; I intend to ask my mentors about the necessity doing so. I will try to get my name on a couple of swarm notification lists.  I'll be making a trip to the Mountain Feed and Farm Supply for more frames, another medium super and some advice.

Treating for varroa mite

After much debate, I decided to treat the hive with formic acid. I ordered a box of 10 treatments (the smallest available) and it came last week. The formic acid has a strong acid smell that many of you will recall from chemistry lab.
It arrived after Maidi and I left for a brief trip to Las Vegas, where we saw Cirque du Soleil, Love. Then on into Utah to the Red Mountain Resort for a couple of days of hiking, swimming, biking, stretching and massage.
Today was the first opportunity to treat. The instructions say to have 7 days of between 50 and 95 degrees. The weather forecast looks like this will be the case. So into the hive!
All I did was to take off the 2 top supers and place the strips on the hive, then remove the entrance reducer and put the hive back together. I also placed the sticky sheet so that I can gleefully see how many mites die and drop off. The strips stay in for seven days, so next Monday I'll take them out.

365 mites!

The temperature reached at least 60 degrees today, so I went into the hive.
There were many frames with honey, some brood and pollen and I spotted the queen.
I dusted with powdered sugar, and did it a bit differently. I put sugar on each super rather than just on the top one and letting it fall through. I felt this would get more sugar on the brood frames where the mites would be more concentrated. Either my theory was correct or there are just a lot more mites or both. I was dismayed when I took out the sticky board and could just see hundreds of mites- 365 to be precise. Of course, there could be a small counting error, but only small.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to treat. I haven't ordered my Mite-away quick strips yet. I did email Jeremy Rose again asking for his advice. I fully expect him to tell me to treat, but I wanted to know if it is too late in the year for formic acid. I hope he answers soon and will keep you all up to date.