Hi all
I think it should be made clear that there is a big difference between absconding behavior and colony collapse. I have only seen European honey bees abscond a few times. Mainly, back in Southern California in the 1980s (before varroa and African bees), colonies were sometimes driven out of their hives by ants. All the bees go and they abandon the brood.

Colony collapse started to be very common in the 1990s, after varroa became established. This is where you have a big strong colony that makes a hundred pound crop and then in a couple of weeks, there isn't but a handful of bees and a queen. Usually the damage from the mites is very obvious: deformed bees, sick brood, mites in cells, etc.

This is not the same as CCD, however, which was a very specific phenomenon where bees apparently left en masse, but also left behind the queen, lots of apparently normal brood, and honey with little or no evidence of mites. All the same, this particular set of symptoms is pretty rare, despite what you see in the media. I have seen maybe 2-3 cases that fit this latter description.

PLB

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