Hello Gavin & All,

>The high losses cited for last winter come from real data and ring true 
>around here with some beekeepers losing a high proportion of their stocks.

The deaded winter losses.

I can't count the number of articles written about wintering honeybees.

Even I have considred doing an article on wintering bees.

 Mine would most likely say take your losses in fall and do not try to 
winter "dinks". Do not combine two "dinks" as all you will end up with is a 
big "dink" with a poor queen!

Second that healthy *winter* bees wintering over plenty of stores and 
protected from dripping moisture can take the most severe winter has to 
offer.

>  After a wet summer with poor queen mating and continuing problems with 
> miticide-resistant Varroa some predict a similarly poor winter to come.

Poor queen mating is always a problem in rainy weather. I have no answer for 
poorly mated queens.

Mite resistant varroa:
 With thymol and formic available I would drop fluvalinate as soon as 
resistant mites are found in your area. In the U.S. we have not seen any 
varroa resistant to those products but both are temperature dependent and in 
my opinion you need to treat twice a year. Rotating between the two. Formic 
spring and thymol fall is what I do. Its been ten years this year since we 
found fluvalinate resistant varroa and 8 years for coumaphos resistant 
varroa. I switched to thymol as soon as legally available and added formic 
since first on the market.

Yet all the bee supply houses still sell both products. Both are worthless 
as a varroa control in our area.


>It's not a CCD thing, and, although there are many that would like to think 
>so, it doesn't seem to be a pesticide thing either.

I can't tell you the number of claimed CCD cases I have looked at. None 
really fit the described symptoms.

I will describe the most common claimed CCD symptoms I see.

All bees missing from a hive which obviously was a strong hive not long 
before. ( 2 weeks?)

Spotty sealed brood over 4-5 frames. Never a solid pattern like in the CCD 
photos. No eggs or larva in most cases. plenty Honey & pollen in frames. 
Ovals around what used to be sealed brood. No obvious signs of disease.

No robbing at a time the bees should rob. However in some cases a dead out 
is robbed but the beekeeper had not been in the yard for three weeks to a 
month so hard to tell exactly how long the bees have been gone. The CCD team 
says after a couple weeks the bees will rob and seems to be true from my 
observations.

In almost all the cases the beekeeper says the hive was strong last time he 
checked. In many cases fall treatments had been completed . In some cases a 
large crop of honey was produced but when supers were pulled the bees were 
gone.

No sign of the bees and no large amount of dead bees outside the entrance.

Two years ago we saw a small group of young bees and a queen. Now we see a 
empty hive.
After 48 years of beekeeping I can not say I have ever saw exactly what we 
are seeing now but I have to say I started seeing the problem at least two 
years before David Hackenberg brought attention to the issue.

I only post the above so you U.K. beeks can compare what you see with what I 
see. U.S. & Canada beeks are seeing record losses but little actually fit 
the described CCD symptoms.

Good luck with your problems and email direct if you have other questions! I 
will be in Texas next week but will answer when in a wireless connection 
area.

bob 

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