Dave Thompson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Yet another set of symptoms 
> As you know my bees have ccd
> Let's call this mid-fall crash

Hello Dave,

The first rule in looking at symptoms:
Symptoms are to be looked at without a predetermination of cause.

Resist the urge to ‘force fit’ symptoms into a previously determined OR suspected causes.   With each colony you analyze, ‘throw out all previously suspected causes‘ and start again from scratch, letting the symptoms lead you to the cause.  IMO, CCD has become the name given to any unexplainable loss, often force fitting symptoms to the diagnosis, and this is too bad.  

> By the time I got there it was robbed out
> (mostly) 

Congratulations, you do not have CCD.
A requirement for CCD is that they DO NOT get robbed out so quickly.

but it appeared normal all thru Sept
> No bees on BB, just wax bits
…This happened the first week of Oct

I might perhaps, not call that normal.  Wax bits observed in September, along with chewed out brood in October, suggest to me that the colony weakening all through September, and not a ‘rapid decline’ which is a requirement of for CCD diagnosis.  No dead bees on the bottomboard can suggest a gradual decline.  Wax bits can indicate the colony may have been low on stores, and needed to access new reserves quickly letting the caps fall to the floor in the process. OR caps on the floor can suggest that the colony was weak and already ‘resizing is broodnest area’ to what it is capable of protecting, and intentionally choosing to abandon some stores to robbers so that it may protect the core nest area.

Next step is to investigate how low on stores they were.  See how many frames were actually robbed out, vs, empty, and exactly how much brood was there.  A colony short on stores in September, suggest to me that they were perhaps having difficulty several months earlier.  And another symptom that would IMO negate CCD as a cause.

It’s a strange thing, in all sciences, they have a category called ‘undetermined cause’.  I have yet to see that category in beekeeping, it has been replaced with a cause; CCD.  And this is too bad.

Best Wishes,
Joe  
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/


      

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