Dear BEE-L
One of my hives died this Summer under conditions that seem to me like 
classic CCD (rather than PMS, for instance) and I wonder if you agree and 
could give me advice as what to do now ?
Although I am a longtime hobby beekeeper who used to get 200-600 lbs of 
honey per year, my  4 to 10 hives have not yielded honey for several years.  I 
have had to feed them all copiously just to keep them alive. There has been  
very little incoming nectar. The hive that died this Summer was an 
overwintered weak hive that, however,  had at first been building up 
STRONGLY  in the Spring. A powdered sugar dusting was used to evaluate 
varroa mite levels.  Analysis of the powdered sugar coming down through a 
screened bottom board showed only a few mites. I had been feeding the hive 
fumadil and Honey-Bee-Healthy and there was no sign of loss of appetite. 
Then the hive abruptly collapsed and had few incoming foragers. The final 
remaining live bees in this hive were evaluated by Sue Chien 
at "waggledancehoney.com" and found to be very low in both varroa and 
tracheal mites and very low in nosema spores. I know the queen was among 
the 200-300 remaining bees, but they had all abandoned the comb that she 
was laying eggs on, and were clustered up under the inner cover when I 
sampled them. Sue Chien found the queen was still fertile and I saw eggs on 
the last comb that had been used, but there was no interest in this comb. No 
foragers were coming and going.  It seems that Parasitic Mite Syndrome can 
be ruled out because of the low mite counts.   There is no interest in this hive 
by robber bees so there seems to be some sort of odiferous residue that is 
fending the robbers off. Very little honey and pollen is present. So far the only 
beekeeper that I know of who has overcome CCD is one who got rid of ALL his 
old equipment and got all new packages and queens. If the problem is not 
pesticides then this must be a very virulent contamination problem.
How would you proceed at this point ? 
Would you get a pesticide scan on the comb that was last used by the queen ?
Would you get rid of the old equipment and start over?
Would you try cleaning the old equipment with bleach and, if so, how?
Thanks,
Ernie Huber

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