> I had the same problem this year as 2016. I am burning the hives and
> starting with different hives this spring. In one yard I have had 100%
> survival last year and this one, in my home yard I've had 100% loss both
> years with similar symptoms. All hives dead in October/November. All hives
> were treated the same and got very similar care. Probably the home yard got
> a little better attention. All hives were excellent honey producers. The
> outer yard with great survival is not far from an orchard and migratory
> bees are used for pollination. So those bees were certainly exposed to
> multiple virus and still survived quite well. Still at a loss for cause.
>

What if we are paying too much attention to mite buildup in the fall when
our real problem is virulent bees? As I noted in my response to Randy on
mite buildup, bees are more than capable of spreading disease all by
themselves. Plus, they are much more efficient at it. So the BPV and PMS I
saw so early after robbing/immigration was probably caused by infected bees
and the additional mites were an issue but not the main one.That makes
perfect sense and easily explains why we get sudden collapse. It also would
pin the tail more on bees from away rather that a strong hive bring back
virulent mites from a robbed collapsing hive.

Could the robbed honey also play a part? Not sure about that since not sure
if virus survive in all that sugar. So is it the bees from away? Would not
take many.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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