"I wonder how many who fill them out really know what killed the hive."
 

The answer to that is probably 10%   And I am taking my knowledge and implying.  I know what killed roughly 10% of my hives.   The others,  like you I am trying to understand  but am usually not positive.



"I know some in this area that call all their dead hives CCD or pesticide kills. Neither are correct when I look at the hives, but I'll bet they put that on the report. too easy to fudge the report. I have ceased filling it out."


Its an interesting discussion,  I have the same thoughts on the BIP,  but do we have enough faith in the researchers to sort out the noise?  IE  if you list ccd for 3 winter losses but don't treat for mites,  are they smart enough to weed that out??



Is some data better than none?  I have been frustrated by the claims of late of " unsustainable" losses,  when they have been sustained for decades with normal ups and downs.  It does seem we are inundated with data  now,  and that no one seems to make good sense of it,  but will that level out in time?  For example ,  if the surveys continue to come back for 10 more years with 40% loss and level hive counts do we finally get to a baseline?
Maybe we need to continue supplying data for a while.


Charles

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