> On another list it is being reported in California almonds a case of 
> possible CCD. This time the bees left with the frames. Beekeeper & 
> researchers puzzled I read. Only boxes left.

I got Malcolm's newsletter yesterday and was stopped by this passage:

> A couple of reports also suggest that the term CCD is misleading and there 
> is no proof of this bee killer. 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7925397.stm.  "For five years, 
> increasing numbers of unexplained bee deaths have been reported worldwide, 
> with US commercial beekeepers suffering the most.  The term Colony 
> Collapse Disorder was coined to describe the illness.  But many experts 
> now believe that the term is misleading and there is no single, new 
> ailment killing the bees."  The Economist in its March 7, 2009 issue takes 
> up the theme and concludes: "Despite the importance of the honeybee, none 
> of this is evidence of a wide-scale pollination crisis or a threat that is 
> specific to pollinators. No one has shown that colonies of wild bees are 
> collapsing any more frequently than they used to. And while it is true 
> that many species of butterflies, moths, birds, bats and other pollinators 
> are in retreat, their problems are far more likely to mirror broader 
> declines in biodiversity that are the result of well-known phenomena such 
> as habitat loss and the intensification of agriculture.

> "Troubling though this loss of diversity is, it does not necessarily 
> translate into a decline in the amount of pollination going on.  Jaboury 
> Ghazoul of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, writing in 
> Trends in Ecology and Evolution in 2005, points out that the decline of 
> bumblebees in Europe that has been observed recently mostly affects rare 
> and specialized species-an altogether different problem. <snip>  (More at 
> http://home.ezezine.com/1636_2/1636_2-2009.03.16.17.04.archive.html)

I found this quite refreshing, since I have pretty much been of that opinion 
all along.  Seems to me we go through this every decade or so and we can go 
back in the archives and see that.

We've been discussing this off and on here.  Seems to me the opinion is 
pretty well divided.

Although there is no denying that there are some pretty puzzling and massive 
die-outs, and a catch-all term, CCD, but have not AFAIK nailed down the 
cause and effect.  The term 'CCD' to me is like the term 'consumption' which 
described a whole spectrum of conditions from cancer to TB.  Come to think 
of it, 'cancer' is a catch-all, too, isn't it?


 

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