Brian Fredericksen wrote:

> the circus in the US where we rely on commercial interests and a yes/no survey from anyone with a hive of bees to collect data that we deem as proof we have CCD in 35 states.

* I simply do not see how anyone who was familiar with the methodology
and the thoroughness of the work would say something like this. To
characterize it as a "yes/no survey" is plain wrong.

> The number of respondents to the Bee Alert National Bee Loss Survey has increased steadily. The data base now includes a total of 625 valid surveys, received as of 1 June 2007.  Because of the voluntary nature of data accumulation, the data do not represent a statistically designed sampling effort.

> Despite these limitations on the data, the large number of respondents has provided us with extensive coverage of the current state of the CCD problem in the U.S. and Canada. To date, we have received surveys from beekeepers in 43 states and five provinces, obtained obtained more than a quarter of a million data points, and have reports of CCD occurring over the last 16 months in 35 states and at least one province.

> Respondents across all sizes of operation indicate high frequencies of severe bee losses over the past six months. Reversing our earlier report, smaller operations are more likely to have suffered more severe losses than normal. The extent of severe losses increases in intermediately sized operations, but drops again among the largest beekeepers reporting through our survey. Overall, however, 40 percent of respondents report severe losses this past winter compared to 48 percent who reported average or lower losses.

> We are continuing to extract information from the more than a quarter million answers to our surveys. We're currently looking at medications used, which is a complex task given the diverse array of management practices, ranging from organic beekeepers to those who use multiple materials in attempts to control or treat for diseases and mites.

> All in all, we are impressed by the candor of our reporting beekeepers. Our preliminary observations are that the use of fumagillin and related products to control nosema is on the rise among large scale (>1,000 colony) beekeepers. Also, some organic beekeepers have experienced CCD.

see:
National Honey Bee Loss Survey Updated Survey Results, June 1, 2007:
Correlation of Common Pathogens with CCD

http://tinyurl.com/yohbft

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