Hey Bob
To answer your question, sorry, I've been out of control making repairs on equipment and now moving bees to the fall flow locations on brazilian pepper.
As for CCD , exact symptoms , YES I have had them . I had them about a month before David Hackenburgs bees started "disappearing" then became CCD, when this all appeared .That year my bees never left Florida.
I had all of David's bees in different area's from mine for the fall honey flow,before he came down and started finding the heavy losses.
I went out with Jerry to get the first samples from David Hackenburgs bees, so ,yes I know what you say you have never seen looks like first hand from my own to several other large guys around here, and I have to say CCD IS real and It is something that was different. At the same time right here there were guys, that treated the same as we had been and had great bees and normal loss.
A year or two later, they had large loss.
This year after 3 years of no large loss we had , lots of feed, lots of protein, and treating mites, we had 60 plus percent loss righ around january.
Been splitting all spring and summer ,climbing back up.
So just saying keeping mites down ,don't make CCD go away, and I don't want to fill the hives with to many treatments so where do you draw a line on that?
I know first hand David Hackenburgs operation ,new frames, irradiated supers and frames by the truck load, tanker after tanker of sucrose, protein, first class all the way ,and still had problems last fall and winter also. Probably spends way more per hive then anyone I know to keep fat happy bees. So all his thoughts about the systemics may have some weight . I don't see any room for improvement on providing the best care for the bees he could do, and still do pollination.
I have to say again it's more complex than just the mites, yes that is a important step ,very important, but i've said all that to say I'd try VC , what do I have to loose.
I have to ask , of Dave , do you have any measured amount and do you have a source you have found to get a bulk amount ? I'd have a hard time getting enough pills to provide large amounts VC to feed large numbers. I have become a big user of honey b healthy, for the same reason, it can't hurt, it smells good and the bees seem to prefer syrup with it in it verses not.
By the way, someone asked about making your own, I found a recipe for it off bee source a year or two ago, I'll have to dig it up but it was not complicated ,involved a couple of ingredients to make the oils water soluble,but was pretty straight forward.
Where there are fruits and nuts there are beekeepers
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