>Lloyd asks: Is there a set of symptoms that everyone agrees on that  means 
'CCD'?
 
Yes, these symptoms were identified, agreed upon by the CCD Working  Group, 
and have been  listed on all of the CCD Working Group  sites, including our own 
bee loss survey site - collapse of colony, absence  of older bees, presence 
of queen, young bees, often an excess of brood,  absence of dead bees in box, 
in front of hive, often noticeable absence of  robbing, pests such as wax 
moths, etc.
 
If you answer disappearing bees in our survey and also answer dead bees in  
box, we don't count it as CCD.  Many of those questions had some  intentional 
overlap so we can sort out what we call CCD from other  losses.  

>There is no question... set of symptoms mostly called  CCD is a serious 
threat, use (and overuse) of organophosphates is a serious  threat,  *Many* 
beekeepers are reporting CCD ... died through no fault of  their own. 
 
I mostly agree, except that pesticide losses are NOT limited to OPs - we  
still see losses from a wide array of pesticides-, and most beekeepers  
responding to our survey spent a lot of time trying to apportion losses to  various 
causes, they weren't just checking CCD.  The ratios of possible  causes of loss 
checked by beekeepers has not changed much since the  beginning of all this, 
regardless of the press.  We also have found  beekeepers who are very reluctant 
to admit to any bee losses, because other  beekeepers will think that they are 
poor bee managers.
 
> I think this is primarily a factor among hobbyists, yet the  methods of 
counting treat them
the same ....  we don't treat them the  same --we separate out the responses 
by size of beekeeper.  
 
We don't lump them as all the same, and we pay particular attention to  
larger, long term (years) beekeepers - who should know the basics, or else  they 
wouldn't have been in business for very long, or reached sizes of 1,000s,  to 
10s of thousands of hive.  
 
>>beekeepers who want to get on the public teat
 
We get about equal amounts of pressure from associations and  individuals who 
want us to either list a state in case agricultural disaster  relief funds 
are made available, and those who want us to delist a state so no  one will shun 
their bees.  We try or best to maintain a neutral ground;  we list states as 
the data indicates.
 
We admit that our volunteer survey may be biased by people wanting to  report 
losses as CCD, but the data does not indicate that this is happening to  any 
great degree, and most importantly, numbers reporting CCD have not changed  
substantially.  In fact, the most obvious result is that overwinter loss is  one 
of the most frequently cited cause of bee loss.  Pesticides hold about  
constant at about 4%.  
 
Obviously, the most recent reports are the most likely to be biased, given  
all of the press.  But, we've not seen an obvious change since we started  all 
of this.  We also intended to draw a line, wrap up the current survey,  and 
reformat, given that we've now finished reports from overwintering and in a  
sense have begun a new bee year.  We're looking at the old survey, working  
towards improving/replacing it with a better survey.
 
Our bottom line, its the degree of overall loss frequency and distribution  
that is more worrisome than the 'attribution' to CCD in terms of the viability  
of this industry.
 
Jerry
 





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