I thought I should close out 2009, my continuing trials with ccd
This is for the bees that are actually suffering this
Somewhere on USDA website sez .75-1.0 million lost to ccd (over 3y of course)
Thats NA alone. Do the math, 10^10++ having fairly sub-optimal life
Some of the responsability is OURS. gobal and crowding
I know of no bk that has each hive 100yds apart
No news is good news, but there are some incidents of note
Plenty enough bk incompetencies too
To recap here is 2009 in a line date, #hives, (why)
fall08 22, mar09 13, apr 9 (ccd,Q started late,laid 1,died), may 6 (bear), 5 effectives
But that can't be right, I must have had 2 more, maybe bear got ccd corpse & start
Bear chewed ccd hives (equipement, empty)
The bear went on >1month
The numbers got a bit confused at that time
Then fun with AFB, luck with the bad, kept the bear off (the smell)(that wonderful bk)
With no imports 8 turned into 16 by aug09, not too shabby with sick bees
700# honey, lucky a very late year for necter
I have had no absconds since end apr (til mid dec)
I have fed ~195 gm vitamin C since may, thru oct
Integrating hive #s thats 14 gm/ 18+weeks
But I consider their health to be a bit fragile
There is only 3/4 the population that there should be
They give a "tired" impression
A few are hyper, that may be just the genes
The dink stayed a dink, still alive mid dec(2.5y old hive)
Only dink, rest split evenly between F, G, GP, VG. no EX
(fair, good, good plus, very good, excellent)
Dink = cull, but an empty cage tells you little
It's hard to judge a start. Most VG slipped to GP by years end
("run out of steam" impression)
I think there will be a bit better than 50% winter survival at this point
Because of burning AFB frames I started into the ccd deadout pile
and the stunted nuc was the result. A bleach soak woud have avoided it all
I already suspected that frames with ccd-dead brood are highly contaminated
Obviously those frames should have been burned too
Noteable the speed of effect.Young Q became non-layer in 5d or less. C did not prevent this
After 60d(nonlaying) she laid ~100+ eggs in 2x3" patch, extended comb, beginning of rounded cap
in 5.44 worker comb, 1d shy of sealing mid nov. Very uniform. Looked drone
No other brood. Very odd. In that 2 months (sep-oct)no sign of eggs
Almost certain to be a deadout soon
If you think your bees have ccd watch the rear legs
todo year 10
Stethoscope -- how quiet? soon
revisit vinegar
wing clipping
videos of sufficient quality, video editing
dave
mid-ontario
PS Jerry: You were going to say something about audio - the sound of the hive?
There was some experiment underway? This some months ago
probably a very complex problem to interpret data, requiring an expert system/AI
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