>> and many of the hives lost were splits in their first year. >The frames, whatever it is, you passed it to new colonies / nucs by the >frames. Or the topology of mortality shows a different way of transmition? That was 'way to many quotes, Juanse, but a good question nonetheless. I'd have to say that the transmission was not by frame transfer unless there is a long latency period and all cases develop within a definite window. (Unlikely). These were spring and early summer splits. Many did quite well until I noticed one hive turned nasty and happened to have what looked like EFB. Two weeks later it was down to a frame or two and around that time, other hives began to dwindle and went off their feed as they got smaller. Some remained strong, but I noticed some hives were dead and dying just after I wrapped. By then it was getting too late to do anything and I left the problem for spring. Spring never came. Winter is just finally ending now, but when I was able to walk through the yard, there was no bee life at all. Going into winter, experience told me that I'd be lucky to have 50% survive, but I was not expecting zero survival. As I mentioned, I doumented my activities and delusions as I went and it is all there for anyone to read. I never change a word of my diary after it has been up for more than a short while, and it stretches back to 1999. It is at http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary The time travel links can move a reader to any month of any year. See http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/pastpages.htm I hestitate to mention those pages because I can't imagine how anyone can have the endurance to readmore than a little, (but occasionally people tell me that they have read it all. You decide). *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm