>Bill wrote: The same problem exists if the
> observer is from a University but does not have many years of field
> experience to know what they are actually looking at.
Bill, I was skeptical as hell of CCD at first. But I have spoken to enough
beekeepers with field experience to feel that something other than just mite
problems is going on. Jerry Bromenshenk likely has more field experience
than any beekeeper in Maine at actually inspecting CCD colonies.
I've had the chance over the past couple of years of personally asking Dr
Bromenshenk quite a number of very specific questions about bee behavior and
biology. His answers exhibited a superb depth of knowledge of the bee
colony, and were of much greater detail (supported by hard data won from
tedious measurement) than most respondents could give me. If Dr Jerry
Bromenshenk tells me that he is observing something out of the ordinary, I
take notice!
The other members of the CCD working group have better things to do with
their time than go on wild goose chases. They have also all had experience
with mite deadouts before. To suggest that they have all suddenly turned
into fools seems a bit frivolous.
Your contention that CCD is nothing but a mite issue has been noted by the
List. Researchers are testing that hypothesis as we speak. I eagerly await
their results.
Randy Oliver
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