Peter said:
<Sideliner and hobby beekeepers rank the causes of their bee losses as 1) starvation; 2) weather; 3) "weak in fall"; 4) mites; and 5) queen>

How do they define a sideliner as opposed to a hobby beekeeper? 
Could the explanation for the larger emphasis on starvation for hobbyists and sideliners (compared to commercial beekeepers) be that commercial beekeepers are more likely to compensate for weak foraging by enhanced feeding ? I have thought for some time that the most recent 4- 5 years of difficulty that I have had in keeping bees (as a hobbyist with 5-10 hives over the last 30 years) could be summed up as not enough stores being brought in by the foragers. My bees would, and did, starve towards the end of winter if I did not pay close attention to their needs. This is a new phenomenon for me and something I believe that may be related to CCD. Not enough foragers are returning with the goods. Maybe what we need is an inexpensive monitor to place on our hives for measuring the daily bee loss of foragers. Anybody know of one ?
               Ernie Huber

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