> Finding the causative organism is the problem. We know that mad cow
> disease was traced back to the practice of feeding cattle dead
> cattle, which has since been halted. But it took a long time to find
> a putative cause. Last I heard it was put down to "prions" which are
> less alive than viruses. I have often wondered if CCD could be caused
> by some sort of prion or prion like agent.

Actually BSE may have originated from feeding sheep offal to cattle.

Has anyone been feeding mutton or beef to bees?  I know people have
tried everything with any protein in it.  I was asked to test a ration
based on fish.  (It may have had the right nutritional profile and might
even have worked -- if it had not been such a fine bee repellent).

Could it bee that we have a low-level, slow progressing chronic wasting
disease in bees and that if we grind up one individual in the advanced
stages, and the others consume the juice, the process of infection is
accelerated?

Anyhow, simply finding the causative organism is _a_ problem. but IMO
not _the_ problem.

I would be perfectly happy to know actions to perform or not perform
that would prevent the losses, and which would not be burdensome.  I
think most beekeepers feel the same.

Whether the root cause or causes is bad spirits, angry gods, bacteria,
viruses, prions, chemicals, genetics, cell phones or some agent we have
not yet discovered, simply 'knowing' is no solution.

Knowing may lead to a solution, but the art of successful beekeeping is
not based so much on hard knowledge, as on empirical knowledge gained by
experience and hunches about things.  (Bad beekeeping is based on
exactly the same foundation).

Interestingly, we are mandated to use movable frame hives for disease
detection reasons, and yet, I suspect that fixed frame beekeepers may
not experience the same problems in the same magnitude as those of use
using modern equipment.

At some point, going back to skeps and gums may actually prove more
profitable for pollinating, and that is where the money is for many
beekeepers.

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